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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



1 




Deliverance of the Holy Saint Nichiren from the Executioner of Hojo.-CPaj/e 165 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE 



BY 

i 
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, A.M. 

h 

FORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO, JAPAN 



Book I.— HISTORY OF JAPAN 
FROM 660 B.C. TO 1872 A.D. 
Book II. — PERSONAL EXPERI- 
ENCES, OBSERVATIONS, AND 
STUDIES IN JAPAN, 1870-1874 



EIGHTH EDITION 

WITH SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTERS 

INCLUDING THE LATE WAR WITH CHINA 













(JUL 31 1895 




• 






NEW YORK 


HARPER 


& BROTHERS FRANKLIN 
1895 


SQUARE 



V 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Copyright, 1883, 1886, 1890, 1894, and 1895, by 
Harper & Brothers. 

All rights reserved. 






TO 



JAPANESE LOVERS OF KNOWLEDGE IN EVERY AGE : 

THE DEAD, 
"WHO FIRST KINDLED THE SACRED FIRE, WHO PASSED ON THE TORCH; 

THE MARTYRS, 

WHO SUFFERED DEATH FOR THEIR LOYALTY, PATRIOTISM, DEVOTION TO NATIONAL 

UNITY, RESTORATION, AND REGENERATION; 

THE STUDENTS, 
WHO, IN NOBLE THIRST FOR TRUTH, FOUND HONORED GRAVES IN ALIEN SOIL ; 

THE LIVING, 

WITH WHOM RESTS THE FUTURE OF THEIR BEAUTIFUL LAND, 

THIS SKETCH 

OF THEIR COUNTRY AND PEOPLE, MADE IN THE INTEREST OF TRUTH, AND 

SET DOWN WITHOUT EXTENUATION OR MALICE, IS, 

WITH FRATERNAL REGARD, 

DEDICATED 

BY THEIR COMRADE AND FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



Japan, once in the far-off Orient, is now our nearest Western neigh- 
bor. Her people walk our streets ; her youth sit, peers and rivals of 
our students, in the class-room ; her art adorns our homes, and has 
opened to us a new Gate Beautiful. The wise men from the West 
are, at this writing, opening their treasures of tea, silk, gold-lacquer, 
bronzes, and porcelain at the first centennial of our nation's birth. 

We hail the brightness of the rising of this first among Asiatic na- 
tions to enter modern life, to win and hold a place among the fore- 
most peoples of the earth. It is time that a writer treated Japan as 
something else than an Oriental puzzle, a nation of recluses, a land of 
fabulous wealth, of universal licentiousness or of Edenic purity, the 
fastness of a treacherous and fickle crew, a Paradise of guileless chil- 
dren, a Utopia of artists and poets. It is time to drop the license of 
exaggeration, and, with the light of common day, yet with sympathy 
and without prejudice, seek to know what Dai Nippon is and has been. 

It has been well said by a literary critic and reader of all the books 
on the subject that to write a good history of Japan is difficult, not so 
much from lack of materials, but from the differences in psychology. 
This I realize. My endeavor, during eight years' living contact with 
these people, has been, from their language, books, life, and customs, to 
determine their mental parallax, and find out how they think and feel. 

I have not made this book in libraries at home, but largely on the 
soil of the mikado's empire. I have slight obligation to acknowledge 
to foreign writers, except to those working scholars in Japan who 
have written during the last decade with knowledge of the language. 
To them I owe much ; first and most of all to Mr. Ernest Satow, who, 
in the special department of historical research, stands leader. To 
Messrs. W. Dixon, Aston, Mitford, Hepburn, Brown, Blakiston, Von 
Brandt, and Parkes, I am also indebted. I am under many obligations 



8 PREFACE. 

to the editor of The Japan Mail. This scholarly paper, published in 
Yokohama, is a most valuable mirror of contemporaneous Japanese 
history, and a rich store-house of facts, especially the papers of the 
Asiatic Society of Japan. The Japan Herald and The Japan Gazette 
have also been of great service to me, for which I here thank the 
proprietors. The constant embarrassment in treating many subjects 
has been from wealth of material. I have been obliged to leave out 
several chapters on important subjects, and to treat others with mere 
passing allusions. 

In the early summer of 1868, two Higo students, Ise and Numaga- 
wa, arrived in the United States. They were followed by retainers of 
the daimios of Satsuma and Echizen, and other feudal princes. I was 
surprised and delighted to find these earnest youth equals of Ameri- 
can students in good-breeding, courtesy, and mental acumen. Some 
of them remained under my instruction two years, others for a short- 
er time. Among my friends or pupils in New Brunswick, New Jer- 
sey, are Mr. Yoshida Kiyonari, H. I. J. M. Minister Plenipotentiary at 
Washington ; Mr. Takagi Samro, H. I. J. M. Vice-consul at San Fran- 
cisco ; Mr. Tomita Tetsunosuke, H. I. J. M. Consul at New York ; Mr. 
Hatakeyama Yoshinari, President of the Imperial University of Ja- 
pan ; Captain Matsiimura Junzo, of the Japanese navy. Among oth- 
ers were the two sons of Iwakura Tomomi, Junior Prime Minister of 
Japan ; and two young nobles of the Shimadzu family of Satsuma. 
I also met Prince Adzuma, nephew of the mikado, and many of the 
prominent men, ex-daimios, Tokugawa retainers, soldiers in the war of 
1868, and representatives of every department of service under the old 
shogunate and new National Government. Six white marble shafts in 
the cemetery at New Brunswick, New Jersey, mark the resting-place 
of Kusukabe Taro, of Fukui, and his fellow-countrymen, whose devo- 
tion to study cost them their lives. I was invited by the Prince of 
Echizen, while Regent of the University, through the American super- 
intendent, Eev. G. F. Verbeck, to go out to organize a scientific school 
on the American principle in Fukui, Echizen, and give instruction in 
the physical sciences. I arrived in Japan, December 29th, 1870, and 
remained until July 25th, 1874. During all my residence I enjoyed the 
society of cultivated scholars, artists, priests, antiquaries, and. students, 
both in the provincial and national capitals. From the living I bore 
letters of introduction to the prominent men in the Japanese Govern- 
ment, and thus were given to me opportunities for research and obser- 
vation not often afforded to foreigners. My facilities for regular and 



PREFACE. 9 

extended travel were limited only by my duties. Nothing Japanese 
was foreign to me, from palace to beggar's hut. I lived in Dai Nip- 
pon during four of the most pregnant years of the nation's history. 
Nearly one year was spent alone in a daimio's capital far in the in- 
terior, away from Western influence, when feudalism was in its full 
bloom, and the old life in vogue. In the national capital, in the time 
well called " the flowering of the nation," as one of the instructors in 
the Imperial University, having picked students from all parts of the 
empire, I was a witness of the marvelous development, reforms, dan- 
gers, pageants, and changes of the epochal years 1872, 1873, and 
1874. With pride I may say truly that I have felt the pulse and 
heart of New Japan. 

I have studied economy in the matter of Japanese names and titles, 
risking the charge of monotony for the sake of clearness. The schol- 
ar will, I trust, pardon me for apparent anachronisms and omissions. 
For lack of space or literary skill, I have had, in some cases, to con- 
dense with a brevity painful to a lover of fairness and candor. The 
title justifies the emphasis of one idea that pervades the book. 

In the department of illustrations, I claim no originality, except in 
their selection. Many are from photographs taken for me by natives 
in Japan. Those of my artist - friend, Ozawa, were nearly all made 
from life at my suggestion. I have borrowed many fine sketches 
from native books, through Aime Humbert, whose marvelously beau- 
tiful and painstaking work, "Japon Illustre," is a mine of illustra- 
tion. Few artists have excelled in spirit and truth Mr. A. Wirgman, 
the artist of The London Illustrated News, a painter of real genius, 
whose works in oil now adorn many home parlors of ex-residents in 
Japan, and whose gems, fine gold, and dross fill the sprightly pages of 
The Japan Punch. Many of his sketches adorn Sir Rutherford Al- 
cock's book on the vicissitudes of diplomatists, commonly called " The 
Capital of the Tycoon," or " Three Years in Japan." I am indebted 
both to this gentleman and to Mr. Laurence Oliphant, who wrote the 
charming volume, " Lord Elgin's Mission to China and Japan," for 
many illustrations, chiefly from native sketches. Through the liberal- 
ity of my publishers, I am permitted to use these from their stores of 
plates. I believe I have in no case reproduced old cuts without new 
or correct information that will assist the general reader or those who 
wish to study the various styles of the native artists, five of which are 
herein presented. Hokusai, the Dickens, and Kano, the Audubon 
of Japanese art, are well represented. The photographs of the living 



10 PREFACE. 

and of the renowned dead, from temples, statues, or old pictures, from 
the collections of daimios and nobles, are chiefly by Uchida, a native 
photographer of rare ability, skill, and enthusiasm, who unfortunately 
died in 1875. Four vignettes are copied from the steel-plate engrav- 
ings on the greenbacks printed in New York for the Ono National 
Banking Company of Tokio, by the Continental Bank-note Company 
of New York. 

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance derived from native schol- 
ars in Fukui and Tokio, especially Messrs. Iwabuchi, Takakashi, and 
Ideura, my readers and helpers. To the members of the Mei Roku 
Sha, who have honored me with membership in their honorable body, 
I return my best thanks. This club of authors and reformers includes 
such men as Fukuzawa, Arinori Mori, Nakamura Masanawo, Kato Hi- 
royuki, Nishi Shiu, the Mitsukuri brothers, Shiuhei and Rinsho, Uchi- 
da Masawo, Hatakeyama Yoshinari, and others, all names of fame and 
honor, and earnest workers in the regeneration of their country. To 
my former students now in New York, who have kindly assisted me 
in proof-reading, and last and first of all to Mr. Tosui Imadate, my 
friend and constant companion during the last six years, I return my 
thanks and obligations. I omit in this place the names of high offi- 
cers in the Japanese Government, because the responsibility for any 
opinion advanced in this work rests on no native of Japan. That is 
all my own. To my sister, the companion, during two years, of sev- 
eral of my journeys and visits in the homes of the island empire, I 
owe many an idea and inspiration to research. To the publishers of 
the North American Review, Appletons 1 Journal, and The Independent 
my thanks are due for permission to print part of certain chapters 
first published in these periodicals. 

I trust the tone of the work will not seem dogmatic. I submit 
with modesty what I have written on the Ainos. I am inclined to 
believe that India is their original home ; that the basic stock of the 
Japanese people is Aino ; and that in this fact lies the root of the 
marvelous difference in the psychology of the Japanese and their 
neighbors, the Chinese. 

" Can a nation be born at once ?" " With God all things are pos- 
sible." 

W. E. G. 

New York, May 10th, 1876. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



A new issue of this work having been called for in a little over 
four months from the date of its publication, the author has endeav- 
ored to render the second edition more worthy than the first. This 
has been done by the addition of valuable matter in the appendix 
and foot-notes, and the recasting of a few pages, on which original 
has been substituted for compiled matter. 

Critics have complained that in Book I. the line between the myth- 
ical, or legendary, and the historic period has not been clearly drawn. 
A writer in The Japan Mail of November 25th, 1876, says : 

"After an introductory chapter on the physical features of the country, the 
author plunges into the dense mists of the historic and the prehistoric ages, 
where he completely loses his way for about a millennium and a half, until he at 
length strikes into the true path, under the guidance of the Nihon Guai ShV 

Did the critic read Chapter III. ? The author, before essaying the 
task, knew only too well the difficulties of the work before him. He 
made no attempt to do the work of a Niebuhr for Japan. His object 
was not to give an infallible record of absolute facts, nor has he pre- 
tended to do so. He merely sketched in outline a picture of what 
thirty-three millions of Japanese believe to be their ancient history. 
He relied on the intelligence of his readers, and even on that of the 
critics (who should not skip Chapter III.), to appreciate the value of 
the narratives of the Kojiki and the Nihongi — the oldest extant books 
in the Japanese language, and on which all other accounts of the an- 
cient period are based. He was not even afraid that any school-boy 
who had been graduated beyond his fairy tales would think the drag- 
on-born Jimmu a character of equal historic reality with that of Caesar 
or Charlemagne. 

On the o^her hand, the author believes that history begins before 
writing, and that he who would brand the whole of Japanese tradi- 



10* PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

tion before the sixth century a.d. as " all but valueless " must dem- 
onstrate, and not merely affirm. The author preferred to introduce 
Jingu and Yamato Dake to Occidental readers, and let them take their 
chances before the light of research. Will this century see the scholar 
and historian capable of reeling off the thread of pure history, clear 
and without fracture, from the cocoon of Japanese myth, legend, and 
language ? The author, even with his profound reverence for Anglo- 
Japanese scholarship, hopes for, yet doubts it. 

In one point the author has been misapprehended. He nowhere 
attempts to explain whence came the dominant (Yamato) tribe or 
tribes to Japan. He believes the Japanese people are a mixed race, as 
stated on page 86 ; but where the original seats of that conquering 
people may have been on whom the light of written, undoubted his- 
tory dawns in the seventh century, he has not stated. That these 
were in Mantchuria is probable, since their mythology is in some 
points but a transfiguration of Mantchu life. The writer left the ques- 
tion an open one. He is glad to add, without comment, the words 
of the Mail critic, who is, if he mistakes not, one of the most accom- 
plished linguists in Japan, and the author of standard grammars of 
the written and spoken language of Japan : 

"As regards the position of the Japanese language, it gives no dubious re- 
sponse. Japanese has all the structural and syntactical peculiarities common to 
the Alatyan or Ural-Altaic group; and the evidence of the physiognomical tests 
points unmistakably to the same origin for the people. The short, round skull, 
the oblique eyes, the prominent cheek-bones, the dark-brown hair, and the scant 
beard, all proclaim the Mantchus and Coreans as their nearest congeners. Iu 
fact, it is no longer rash to assert as certain that the Japanese are a Tungusic 
race, and their own traditions and the whole course of their history are incom- 
patible with any other conclusion than that Corea is the route by which the im- 
migrant tribes made their passage into Kiushiu from their ancestral Mantchu- 
rian seats." 

The brevity of the chapter on the Ashikaga period, which has been 
complained of, arose, not from any lack of materials, but because the 
writer believed that this epoch deserved a special historian. Another 
reason that explains many omissions, notably, that of any detailed ref- 
erence to Japanese art, is, that this volume is not an encyclopedia. 

The author returns his hearty thanks to his Japanese friends, and 
to the critics whose scrutiny has enabled him in any way to improve 
the work. W. E. G. 

New York, January 10th, 1877. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I. 
HISTORY OF JAPAN FROM 660 B.C. TO 1872 A.D. 

OHAPTEB PAGE 

I. The Background 17 

II. The Aborigines 26 

III. Materials of History 36 

IV. Japanese Mythology 43 

V. The Twilight of Fable 54 

VI. Sujin, the Civilizer 60 

VII. Yamato-Dake, the Conqueror of the Kuanto 68 

VIII. The Introduction of Continental Civilization 75 

IX. Life in Ancient Japan 86 

X. The Ancient Religion 96 

XI. The Throne and the Noble Families 101 

XII. The Beginning of Military Domination 115 

XIII. TORITOMO AND THE MlNAMOTO FAMILY 124 

XIV. Creation of the Dual System of Government 140 

XV. The Glory and the Fall of the Hojo Family 146 

XVI. Buddhism in Japan 158 

XVII. The Invasion of the Mongol Tartars 176 

XVIII. The Temporary Mikadoate 182 

XIX. The War of the Chrysanthemums 187 

XX. The Ashikaga Period 193 

XXI. Life in the Middle Ages 197 

XXII. The Growth and Customs of Feudalism 214 

XXIII. NOBUNAGA, THE PERSECUTOR OF THE BUDDHISTS 229 

XXIV. Hideyoshi's Enterprises.— The Invasion of Corea 236 

XXV. Christianity and Foreigners 247 

XXVI. IYEYASU, THE FOUNDER OF TEDO 264 

XXVII. The Perfection of Duarchy and Feudalism 270 

XXVIII. The Recent Revolutions in Japan 291 



BOOK II. 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, OBSERVATIONS, AND STUDIES IN 
JAPAN, 1870-1875. 

I. First Glimpses of Japan 327 

II. A Ride on the Tokaido 353 



12 CONTENTS. 

OUAPTEE PAGE 

III. In Tokio, the Eastern Capital 363 

IV. Sights and Sounds in a Pagan Temple 378 

V. Studies in the Capital 391 

VI. Among the Men of New Japan 399 

VII. In the Heart of Japan 405 

VIII. Reception by the Daimio.— My Students 426 

IX. Life in a Japanese House 435 

X. Children's Games and Sports 452 

XI. Household Customs and Superstitions 466 

XII. The Mythical Zoology of Japan 477 

XIII. Folk-lore and Fireside Stories 491 

XIV. Japanese Proverbs 504 

XV. The Last Year of Feudalism 512 

XVI. A Tramp Through Japan 541 

XVII. The Position of Woman 551 

XVIII. New Japan 562 



Supplementary Chapter : I. Japan in 1883 579 

II. Japan in 1886 597 

" " III. Japan in 1890 605 

IV. Japan in 1894 617 

" " V. The War with China 629 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 

Associated Ideas in Art and Poetry 645 

The Testament of Iyeyasu 647 

Notation of Time 650 

Foreign Trade of Japan 652 

Legendary Art at the Centennial Exposition 652 

Tea Crop 656 

The Ceramic Art of Japan 656 

Climate and Meteorology 659 

INDEX 661 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Map of Dai Nippon (the Empire of Japan) faces page 17 

1. Nichiren and the Hojo Executioner. (Humbert, from a temple painting) Frontispiece. 

2. High and Low Type of Face. (Hokusai school) 30 

3. An Aino Chief from Yezo. (Photograph by Uchida) 32 

4. His Imperial Majesty, Mutsuhito. (Photograph by Uchida) 37 

5. Passage in the Inland Sea. (Alcock) 57 

6. Mikado's Method of Travel in very Ancient Times. (Native drawing) 62 

7. Imperial or Government Seal. (Native drawing) 66 

8. Imperial Crest, or Mikado's Seal. (Native drawing) 67 

9. Japan, as known to the Ancient Mikados. (From the series of historical maps in the 

" Nilion Riyaku Shi ") 69 

10. Junk in the Bay of Yedo. (Native drawing) 71 

11. Her Imperial Majesty Haruko. (Photograph by Uchida) 81 

12. Shinto Wayside Shrine. (Alcock) 89 

13. The Peasant of To-day. (Hokusai) 91 

14. A Court Noble in Ancient Japan. (Native drawing) 93 

15. The Mikado on his Throne. (Native drawing) 102 

16. A Samurai in Winter Traveling-dress. (Alcock) 106 

17. A Japanese Farmer. (Hokusai) 107 

18. View in the Inland Sea. (Alcock) 118 

19. View near Hiogo. (Alcock) 120 

20. Tametomo defying the Taira Men. (Bank-note vignette) 121 

21. The Mountains and Lake of Hakone. (Alcock) 129 

22. War-junk of the Twelfth Century. (Bank-note vignette) 136 

23. Kojima writing on the Cherry-tree. (Bank-note vignette) 153 

24 Nitta Yoshisada casting the Sword into the Sea. (Bank-note vignette) 155 

25. Kobo Daishi. (Photograph from a temple statue) 162 

26. The Mother's Memorial. (Nankoku Ozawa) 167 

27. Belfry of a Buddhist Temple. (Alcock, from a photograph) 171 

28. Repulse of the Mongol Tartars. (Native painter) 179 

29. Ashikaga Takauji. (Photograph from a temple statue) 185 

30. Temple-bell from Kioto. (Humbert) 200 

31. Chasing Floral Designs on Copper. (Humbert) 203 

32. Picnic Booth. (Humbert) 205 

33. Court Lady in Kioto. (Humbert) 209 

34. Kusunoki Masatsura. (Native drawing) 220 

35. The Challenge. (Hokusai) 223 

36. Archer on Castle Rampart. (Humbert) 226 

37. Symbols of the Carpenter's Guild. (Humbert) 227 

38. View of the Castle of Ozaka. (Alcock) 234 

39. Nobunaga's Victims : Priest and Monk. (Alcock) 235 

40. A Familiar Country Scene. (Hokusai school) 236 

41. Camp of Hideyoshi, before Fukui. (Humbert) 239 

42. Image of Deified Hero. (Native drawing) 241 

43. Ear Monument in Kioto. (Photograph) 245 

44. " The Tarpeian Rock of Japan." (Oliphant) 268 

45. Hollander on Deshima. (Alcock) 260 

46. Crest of the Tokugawa Family. (Native drawing) 271 



14 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

47. The Four Classes of Society. (Nankoku Ozawa) Page 281 

48. Fire-lookouts in Yedo. (Native drawing. " Brocade " style) 286 

49. Matsudaira Yoshinaga, ex-Daimio of Echizen. (Photograph) 308 

50. Keiki, the last Sh5gun of Japan. (Photograph) 314 

51. Push-cart in Yokohama. (Hokusai) 333 

52. The Jin-riki-sha, or " Pull-man Car " of Japan. (Photograph) 335 

53. Young Girl carrying her Bahy Brother. (Alcock) . , 354. 

54. Coolie waiting for a Job. (Alcock) 355 

55. Coopers Hooping a Vat. (Pupil of Hokusai) 357 

56. Crossing the Rokugo River. (Hokusai) 360 

57. Nitsuki, or Ivory Button. (Oliphant) 365 

58. Pattern Designer. (Hokusai) 365 

59. " Nihon Bashi " in Tokio. The Kosatsu. (Nankoku Ozawa) 367 

60. View of Fuji, from Suruga Dai. (Reduced " brocade " picture) 374 

61. Artist at Work. (Hokusai) 379 

62. Pagoda Spire, or Kiu-do. (" Brocade " picture) 381 

63. A Flower Fair at Night in Tokio. (Nankoku Ozawa) 385 

64. Sakurada Avenue and Kasumiya Street. (" Brocade " picture) 395 

65. Travelers in a Snow-storm. Fuji San. (Native drawing) 404 

66. Buddhist Pilgrims. (Alcock) 407 

67. The Samisen. (Oliphant) 408 

68. Bringing Water to wash Travelers' Feet. (Hokusai) 416 

69. A Norimono. (Alcock) 417 

70. Village in Echizen. (Native drawing) 421 

71. Fac-simile of Kinsatsu. Issue of 1869 425 

72. On the Tow-path. (Hokusai) 426 

73. A Little Daimio. (Photograph by Uchida) 429 

74. Servant before his Master. (Alcock) 430 

75. Student burning Midnight Oil. (Photograph) 432 

76. The Studious Gate-keeper. (Native drawing) 436 

77. The Wedding Party. (Alcock, from native painting) 438 

78. Boys playing on Bamboo Bars. (Hokusai) 441 

79. The Grip of Victory. (Hokusai) 442 

80. Gonji in a Brown Study. (Alcock) 445 

81. Night Scene on the River Flats. (Hokusai) 447 

82. Father and Children. (Humbert) 450 

83. Children's Games and Sports. (Humbert) 453 

84. Boys' Games. (Humbert) 458 

85. Boys' Games. (Humbert) 459 

86. The Feast of Dolls. (Nankoku Ozawa) 461 

87. Children's Sports. (Humbert) . . . .^ 464 

88. The Jealous Avenger. (Nankoku Ozawa) 475 

89. The Rain Dragon. (Kano) 479 

90. Futen, the Wind-imp. (Native drawing) 483 

91. Raiden, the Thunder-drummer. (Native drawing) 484 

92. Tengu going on a Picnic. (Hokusai) ._. 487 

93. Grandmother telling Stories. (Nankoku Ozawa) 489 

94. Pipe, Pipe-case, and Tobacco-pouch. (Oliphant) 500 

95. What follows a Meal on Horse-flesh. (Alcock) 517 

96. Kioto Fan-makers. (Humbert) 519 

97. Seven-stroke Sketch of Wild Horse. (Hokusai) 522 

98. Whispering behind the Screen. (Hokusai school) 524 

99. Samurai, in Kami-shimo Dress. (Alcock) 525 

100. The Siesta. (Hokusai) 528 

101. The Game of Dakiu, or " Polo." (Alcock, from native drawing) 530 

102. Rope-dikes, or " Snake-baskets." (Alcock) 531 

103. My House in Fukui. (From a photograph) 532 

104. Wild Goose in Flight. (Native drawing) 537 

105. How we rode to Odani. (Alcock) 544 

106. Japanese Naval Officer. (Photograph) 564 

107. Japanese Steam Corvette Tsukuba Kan. (Photograph) 564 

108. Court Scene. Old Style. (Humbert) 569 



BOOK I. 

HISTORY OF JAPAN FROM 660 B.C. TO 1872 A.D. 



THE ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION OF JAPANESE 

WORDS. 

It is impossible to represent Japanese words exactly by any foreign alpha- 
bet ; but a knowledge of the sounds heard in Japan, and by using letters which 
have each one invariable value, will enable a foreigner to reproduce Japanese 
names with tolerable accuracy. When the native authors and grammarians do 
not agree, absolute unanimity among foreign scholars is not to be expected ; but 
palpable absurdities, impossible combinations of letters, and mistakes arising out 
of pure ignorance of the language may be avoided. The system given below, and 
used throughout this work, is, at least, rational, and is based on the structure and 
laws of combination in the language itself. This system is substantially (the dif- 
ferences aiming to secure greater simplicity) that of Hepburn's Japanese-English 
and English-Japanese, and of Satow's English-Japanese dictionary; the Roman- 
ized version of the Scriptures, published by the American Bible Society ; of the 
"American Cyclopaedia;" the revised editions of Worcester's, and Webster's, dic- 
tionary ; in Brown's, Aston' s, Satow's, Brinckley's, and Hepburn's grammar and 
works on the Japanese language; Monteith's, Mitchell's, Cornell's, Warren's, 
and Harper's (American), and the Student's (English) geography and atlas ; 
Mitford's " Tales of Old Japan;" Adams's "History of Japan;" the official docu- 
ments of the Japanese Government, Department of Education, schools, and col- 
leges ; the British and American Legations and Consulates ; the Anglo-Japanese 
press, and almost all scholars and writers who make accuracy a matter of con- 
cern. 

The standard language (not the local dialect) of Tokio — now the literary as 
well as the political capital of the nation— is taken as the basis, and the words 
are then transliterated from the katagana spelling, as given by the best native 
scholars. The vowels are sounded as follows : 



a has the sound of a in father, arm; 
ai has the sound of ai in aisle, or i in bite ; 
i has the sound of i in pique, machine ; 
u has the sound of u in rule, or oo in boot ; 



ua has the sound of ua in quarantine : 
e has the sound of e in prey, they ; 
ei has the sound of ay in saying ; 
o has the sound of o in bore, so. 



Long vowels are marked thus, 6, u; short vowels, u, 1. 

The combination uai is sounded as wai; iu as yu; E or e, as e in prey; but e, 
as in men ; g is always hard, and s surd, as in sit, sap. 

C before a vowel, g as in gin, gem; I, q, s sonant; x, and the digraphs ph and 
th, are not used. 

The map facing page 17 is reduced, and the names transliterated from the 
large copper-plate map of the empire compiled and published by the Japanese 
War Department in 1872. The numerals refer to the provinces on page 601. 



* agh w T 

La Pervuse Strait 
Sarabei 



Long."East 142 from Greenwich- 144 




LIU KIU 
ISLANDS 

128 



Dai Nippon (the Empire of Japan). 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



i 

THE BACKGROUND. 



It is manifest that to understand a people and their national life, 
the physical conditions under which they live must be known. To 
enjoy the picture, we must study the background. 

Dai Nippon, as the natives call their beautiful land, occupies a sig- 
nificant position on the globe. Lying in the Pacific Ocean, in the 
temperate zone, it bends like a crescent off the continent of Asia. 
In the extreme north, at the island of Saghalin, the distance from 
the main-land of Asia is so slight that the straits may be crossed eas- 
ily in a canoe. From Kiushiu, with the island of Tsushima lying be- 
tween, the distance from Corea is but one day's sail in a junk. For 
4000 miles eastward from the main island stretches the Pacific, shored 
in by the continent of America. From Yezo to Kamtchatka, the Ku- 
riles stretch like the ruins of a causeway, prolonged by the Aleutian 
Islands, to Alaska. The configuration of the land is that resulting 
from the combined effects of volcanic action and the incessant mo- 
tion of the corroding waves. The area of the empire is nearly equal 
to that of our Middle and New England States. Of the 150,000 
square miles of surface, two-thirds consist of mountain land. The 
island of Saghalin (ceded to Russia in May, 1875) is one mountain 
chain ; that of Yezo one mountain mass. On the main island,* a 
solid backbone of mountainous elevations runs continuously from 



* Dai Nippon, or Nihon, means Great Japan, and is the name of the entire em- 
pire, not of the main island. The foreign writers on Japan have almost unani- 
mously blundered in calling the largest island " Niphon." Hondo is the name 
given to the main island in the Military Geography of Japan (Heiyo Nippon Chiri 
Toshi, Tokio, 1872) published by the War Department, and which is used in this 
work throughout. 



18 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Rikuoku to Shinano, whence it branches off into subordinate chains 
that are prolonged irregularly to Nagato and into Kiushiu and Shiko- 
kii. Speaking generally, the heights of the mountains gradually in- 
crease from the extremities to the centre. In Saghalin, they are low ; 
in Yezo, they are higher : increasing gradually on the north of the 
main island, they culminate in the centre in the lofty ranges of Shi- 
nano, and the peaks of Nantaizan, Yatsugadake, Hakuzan (nine thou- 
sand feet high), and Fuji, whose summit is over twelve thousand feet 
above the sea. Thence toward the south they gradually decrease in 
height. There are few high mountains along the sea-coast. The 
land slopes up gradually into hills, thence into lesser peaks, and final- 
ly into lofty ranges. 

As Fuji, with his tall satellites, sweeps up from the land, so Japan 
itself rises up, peak-like, from the sea. From the shores the land 
plunges abruptly down into deep water. Japan is but an emerged 
crest of a submarine mountain — perhaps the edge of hard rock left 
by the submergence of the earth-crust which now floors the Sea of 
Japan and the Gulf of Tartary. There seems little reason to doubt 
that Saghalin, Yezo, Hondo, and Kiushiu were in geologic ages united 
together, forming one island. Surrounded on all sides by swift and 
variable currents, the islands everywhere on the sea -borders exhibit 
the effect of their action. At most points the continual detritus is 
such as to seriously encroach on the land area, and the belief holds 
among certain native sea -coast dwellers, strengthened by the tradi- 
tional tales of past ravages, that in process of time the entire country, 
devoured by successive gnawings of the ocean, will finally sink into 
its insatiable maw. 

The geological formations of the country — the natural foundations 
— are not as yet accurately determined. Enough, however, is known 
to give us a fair outline of fact, which future research and a thorough 
survey must fill up.* Of the soil, more is known. 



* Baron Richthofen, in a paper read before the Geological Society of Berlin, 
June 4th, 1873, thus generalizes the geology of Japan: The west and east por- 
tion of the aggregate body of the Japanese islands is in every way the direct con- 
tinuation of the mountain system which occupies the south-eastern portion of 
China, the axial chain of which extends from the frontier of Annam to the island 
of Chusan, in the direction of W. 30° S., E. 30° N. It is accompanied on either 
6ide by a number of parallel chains. The prolongation of this group of linear 
chains passes through the island of Kiushiu to the great bend of Japan (Suruga 
and Shinano). Through Kiushiu and the southern part of the main island, the 
structure of the hills and the rocks of which they are made up (chiefly Silurian 



THE BACKGROUND. 19 

Even in a natural state, without artificial fertilization, most of the 
tillable land produces good crops of grain or vegetables. On myriads 

and Devonian strata, accompanied by granite) and the lines of strike are the 
6ame as those observed in South-eastern China. This system is intersected at 
either end by another, which runs S.S.W., N.N.E. On the west it commences in 
Kiushiu, and extends southward in the direction of the Liu Kiu Islands, while on 
the east it constitutes the northern branch of the main island, and, with a slight 
deviation in its course, continues through the islands of Yezo and Saghalin. A 
third system, which properly does not belong to Japan, is indicated by the S.W. 
and N.E. line of the Kuriles. 

The above outline throws light on the distribution of volcanoes. The first 
system, where it occupies the breadth of the country for itself alone, is as free 
from volcanoes, or any accumulation of volcanic rocks, as it is in South-eastern 
China. The second system is accompanied by volcanoes. But the greatest ac- 
cumulation of volcanic rocks, as well as of the extinct volcanoes, is found in the 
places of interference, or those regions where the lines of the two systems cross 
each other, and, besides, in that region where the third system branches off from 
the second. To the same three regions the volcanoes which have been active in 
historic times have been confined. 

In the geological structure of Kiushiu, the longer axis is from N. to S.,but in- 
tersected by several solid bars made up of very ancient rocks, and following the 
strike of W. 30° S., E. 30° N. They form high mountain barriers, the most cen- 
tral of which, south of the provinces of Higo and Bungo, rises to over seven 
thousand feet, and is extremely wild and rugged. In Satsuma, the various fam- 
ilies of volcanic rocks have arrived at the surface in exactly the same order of 
succession as in the case of Hungary, Mexico, and many other volcanic regions, 
viz., first, propylite, or trachytic greenstone; second, andesite; third, trachyte 
and rhyolite ; fourth, the basaltic rocks. The third group was not visited by 
him. Thomas Antisell, M.D., and Professor Benjamin J. Lyman, M.E., and Hen- 
ry S. Munroe, M.E., American geologists in Tezo, have also elucidated this inter- 
esting problem. From the first I quote. The mountain systems of Tezo and 
farther north are similar to those in the northern part of the main island. There 
are in Tezo two distinct systems of mountains. One, coming down directly from 
the north, is a continuation of the chain in Karafto (Saghalin), which, after pass- 
ing down south along the west shore of Tezo, is found in Rihuoku, Ugo, Uzen, 
and farther south. The second enters Tezo from the Kuriles Islands and Kanit- 
chatka, running N. 20-25° E. and S. 20-25° W., and crossing in places the first sys- 
tem. It is from the existence and crossing of these chains that Tezo derives its 
triangular form. The two systems possess very different mineral contents for 
their axes. The first has an essentially granitic and feldspathic axis, produced, 
perhaps, by shrinkage, and is slow of decomposition of its minerals forming 
the soils. The second has an axis, plutonic or volcanic, yielding basalts, traps, 
and diorites, decomposing readily, producing deep and rich soils. Hence the 
different kinds of vegetation on the two chains. Where the two chains cross, 
also, there is found a form of country closed up in the north and east by hills, the 
valleys opening to the south and west. This volcanic chain is secondary in the 
main island of Japan ; but in Tezo and in Kiushiu it attains great prominence. 

Professor Benjamin S. Lyman, an American geologist, has also made valuable 
surveys and explorations in Tezo, the results of which are given in the "Reports 
of Horace Capron and his Foreign Assistants," Tckio, 1875. 



20 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

of rice-fields, which have yielded richly for ages, the fertility is easily 
maintained by irrigation and the ordinary application of manure, the na- 
tives being proficient in both these branches of practical husbandry. 

The rivers on such narrow islands, where steep mountains and 
sharply excavated valleys predominate, are of necessity mainly useless 
for navigation. Ordinarily they are little more than brooks that flow 
lazily in narrow and shallow channels to the sea. After a storm, in 
rainy weather, or in winter, they become swollen torrents, often miles 
wide, sweeping resistlessly over large tracts of land which they keep 
perpetually desolate — wildernesses of stones and gravel, where fruitful 
fields ought to be. The area of land kept permanently waste in Ja- 
pan on this account is enormous. The traveler, who to-day crosses a 
clear brook on a plank, may to-morrow be terrified at a roaring flood 
of muddy water in which neither man, beast, nor boat can live a mo- 
ment. There are, however, some large plains, and in those we must 
look to find the navigable rivers. In the mountains of Shinano and 
Kodziike are found the sources of most of the streams useful for nav- 
igation on the main island. On the plains of the Kuanto (from Suru- 
ga to Iwaki), Oshiu (Rikuchiu and Rikuzen), Mino, and Echigo, are a 
few rivers on which one may travel in boats hundreds of miles. One 
may go by water from Tokio to Migata by making a few portages, and 
from Ozaka to the end of Lake Biwa by natural water. In the north- 
ern part of Hondo are several long rivers, notably the Kitagami and 
Sakata. In Yezo is the Ishikari. In Shikoku are several fine streams, 
which are large for the size of the islands. Kiushiu has but one or 
two of any importance. Almost every one of these rivers abounds in 
fish, affording, with the surrounding ocean, an inexhaustible and easily 
attainable supply of food of the best quality. Before their history 
began, the aboriginal islanders made this brain-nourishing food their 
chief diet, and through the recorded centuries to the quick-witted Jap- 
anese proper it has been the daily meat. 

In the geologic ages volcanic action must have been extremely vio- 
lent, as in historic time it has been almost continual. Hundreds, at 
least, of mountains, now quiet, were once blazing furnaces. The ever- 
greenery that decks them to-day reminds one of the ivy that mantles 
the ruins, or the flowers that overgrow the neglected cannon on the bat- 
tle-field. Even within the memory of men now living have the most 
awful and deadly exhibitions of volcanic desolation been witnessed. 
The annals of Japan are replete with the records of these flame-and- 
lava-vomiting mountains, and the most harrowing tales of human life 



THE BACKGROUND. 21 

destroyed and human industry overwhelmed are truthfully portrayed 
by the pencil of the artist and the pen of the historian in the native 
literature. Even now the Japanese count over twenty active and hun- 
dreds of dormant volcanoes. As late as 1874, the volcano of Taromai, 
in Yezo, whose crater had long since congealed, leaving only a few 
puffing solfataras, exploded, blowing its rocky cap far up into the air, 
and scattering a rain of ashes as far as the sea-shore, many miles dis- 
tant. Even the nearly perfect cone of Shiribeshi, in Yezo, is but one 
of many of nature's colossal ruins. Asama yama, never quiet, puffs 
off continual jets of steam, and at this moment of writing is groan- 
ing and quaking, to the terror of the people around it. Even the 
superb Fuji, that sits in lordly repose and looks down over the lesser 
peaks in thirteen provinces, owes its matchless form to volcanic ac- 
tion, being clothed by a garment of lava on a throne of granite. Ha- 
kuzan, on the west coast, which uprears its form above the clouds, 
nine thousand feet from the sea-level, and holds a lakelet of purest 
water in its bosom, once in fire and smoke belched out rocks and ul- 
cered its crater jaws with floods of white and black lava. Not a few 
of these smoking furnaces by day are burning lamps by night to the 
mariner. Besides the masses and fields of scoria one everywhere 
meets, other evidences of the fierce unrest of the past are noticed. 
Beds of sulphur abound. Satsuma, Liu Kiu, and Yezo are noted for 
the large amount they easily produce. From the sides of Hakuzan 
huge crystals of sulphur are dug. Solfataras exist in active operation 
in many places. Sulphur-springs may be found in almost every prov- 
ince. Hot-springs abound, many of them highly impregnated with 
mineral salts, and famous for their geyser-like rhythm of ebb and flow. 
In Shinano and Echigo the people cook their food, and the farmer 
may work in his fields by night, lighted by the inflammable gas which 
issues from the ground, and is led through bamboo tubes. 

Connected with volcanic are the seismic phenomena. The records 
of Japan from the earliest time make frequent mention of these devas- 
tating and terrifying visitations of subterranean disorder. Not only 
have villages, towns, and cities been shaken down or ingulfed, but in 
many neighborhoods tradition tells of mountains that have disap- 
peared utterly, or been leveled to earth. The local histories, so nu- 
merous in Japan, relate many such instances, and numerous gullies 
and depressions produced by the opening and partial closure of the 
earth-lips are pointed out. One, in the province of Echizen, is over a 
mile long, and resembles a great trench. 



22 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

In addition to a good soil, Japan has been generously endowed by 
the Creator with mineral riches. Most of the useful varieties of stone 
are found throughout the empire. Granite and the harder rocks, 
through various degrees of softness, down to the easily carved or 
chipped sandstones and secondary formations useful for fortifications, 
buildings, tombs, walks, or walls, exist in almost every province. 

Almost all the useful metals long known to man are found in this 
.island empire. Gold and silver in workable quantities are found in 
many places. The island of Sado is a mass of gold-bearing quartz. 
Copper is very abundant, and of the purest kind. Lead, tin, antimo- 
ny, and manganese abound. Of zinc and mercury there is but little. 
Iron is chiefly in the form of magnetic oxide. It occurs in the dilu- 
vium of rivers and along the sea-coast, lying in beds, often of great 
thickness. The first quality of iron may be extracted from it. Iron- 
stone and many other varieties of ore are also found. Petroleum 
issues from the ground in Echigo, Suruga, Echizen, Yezo, and in Sag- 
halin ; the ocean at some portions on the coast of the latter is said 
to be smeared with a floating scum of oil for miles. 

The botanical wealth of Japan is very great. A considerable num- 
ber of vegetable species have doubtless been introduced by human 
agency into Japan from the. Asiatic continent, but the indigenous 
plants and those imported by natural means are very numerous. 

The timber of the main island, Kiushiu, and Shikokii is superb in 
appearance and growth, of great variety, beauty, and adaptability to 
the uses of man. Yezo is one vast boom and lumber yard. Thirty- 
six varieties of useful timber-trees, including true oak, are found there. 
The Kuriles also afford rich supplies, and are capable of becoming to 
the empire proper what forest-clad Norway is to England. Yamato, 
on the main-land, is also famous for its forests, ranging from tallest 
evergreen trees of great size, fineness of grain, and strength of fibre, to 
the soft and easily whittled pines ; but the incessant demands for fir- 
ing and carpentry make devastating inroads on the growing timber. 
Split wood for cooking, and charcoal for warmth, necessitate the sys- 
tem of forestry long in vogue in some parts of the empire requiring a 
tree to be planted for every one cut down ; and nurseries of young 
forest trees are regularly set out, though the custom is not universal. 
Most of the trees and many of the plants are evergreen, thus keeping 
the islands clothed in perpetual verdure, and reducing the visual dif- 
ference between winter and summer, in the southern half of Hondo, at 
least, to a nearly tropical minimum. 



TEE BACKGROUND. 23 

The various varieties of bamboo, graceful in appearance, and by its 
strength, symmetry, hollo wness, and regularity of cleavage, adapted 
to an almost endless variety of uses, are almost omnipresent, from the 
scrub undergrowth in Yezo to that cultivated in luxuriant groves in 
Satsuma so as to be almost colossal in proportion. There is, how- 
ever, as compared with our own country, a deficiency of fruit-trees 
and edible vegetables. The first use of most of the bread grains 
and plants is historic. In very ancient times it is nearly certain 
that the soil produced very little that could be used for food, except 
roots, nuts, and berries. This is shown both by tradition and history, 
and also by the fact that the names of vegetables in Japan are mostly 
foreign. 

The geographical position of the Japanese chain would lead us to 
expect a flora American, Asiatic, and semi-tropical in its character. 
The rapid variations of temperature, heavy and continuous rains, suc- 
ceeded by scorching heats and the glare of an almost tropical sun, are 
accompanied and tempered by strong and constant winds. Hence we 
find semi-tropical vegetable forms in close contact with Northern tem- 
perate types. In general the predominant nature of the Japan flora 
is shrubby rather than herbaceous.* 

The geographical position of Japan hardly explains the marked re- 
semblance of its flora to that of Atlantic America,f on the one hand, 
and that of the Himalaya region, on the other. Such, however, is the 



* In the "Enumeratio Plantarum," which treats of all the known exogens and 
conifers in Japan, 1699 species are enumerated, distributed in 643 genera, which 
are collocated in 122 orders. In other words, an imperfect botanical survey of 
the Nippon chain of islands shows that in it are represented nearly half the nat- 
ural orders, ten per cent, of the genera, and nearly three per cent, of the species 
of dicotyledons known to exist on the surface of the globe. Future research 
must largely increase the number of species. 

t Very large and splendidly illustrated works on botany exist in the Japanese 
language. The native botanists classify according to the Linnaean system. In 
their "Enumeratio Plantarum" (Paris, 1874), Drs. A. F ranch et and L. Savatier 
have given a resume of all the known dicotyledonous plants in Japan. It is a work 
of great research and conscientious accuracy. I have seen excellent and volumi- 
nous native works, richly illustrated, on ichthyology, conchology, zoology, en- 
tomology, reptilology, and mineralogy. Some of these works are in ninety vol- 
umes each. Ten thousand dollars were spent by a wealthy scholar in Mino in 
the publication of one of them. They would not satisfy the requirements of the 
exact science of this decade, but they constitute an invaluable thesaurus to the 
botanical investigator. I am indebted for most of the information concerning 
the Japanese flora to a paper in the Japan Mail of September 25th, 1875, from 
the pen of a competent reviewer of Dr. Savatier's great work. 



24 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

fact : the Japanese flora resembles that of Eastern North America 
more than that of Western North America or Europe.* 

The fauna of the island is a very meagre one, and it is also quite 
probable that the larger domestic animals have been imported. Of 
wild beasts, the bear, deer, wolf, badger, fox, and monkey, and the 
smaller ground animals, are most probably indigenous. So far as 
studied, however, the types approach those of the remote American 
rather than those of the near Asiatic continent. 

It is most probable, and nearly certain, that prehistoric Japan did 
not possess the cow, horse, sheep, or goat. Even in modern Japan, 
the poverty of the fauna strikes the traveler with surprise. The birds 
are mostly those of prey. Eagles and hawks are abundant. The 
crows, with none to molest their ancient multitudinous reign, are now, 
as always in the past, innumerable. The twittering of a noticeably 
small number of the smaller birds is occasionally heard ; but bird-song 
seems to have been omitted from the catalogue of natural glories of 
this island empire. Two birds, the stork and heron, now, as ancient- 
ly, tread the fields in stately beauty, or strike admiration in the be- 
holder as they sail in perfect grace in mid-air. The wild ducks and 
geese in flocks have, from time immemorial, summered in Yezo and 
wintered in Hondo. 

The domestic fowls consist almost entirely of ducks and chickens. 
The others have, doubtless, been imported. Of sea-birds there are le- 
gions on the uninhabited coasts, and from the rocks the fishermen 
gather harvests of eggs. 

Surrounding their land is the great reservoir of food, the ocean. 
The seas of Japan are probably unexcelled in the world for the mul- 
titude and variety of the choicest species of edible fish. The many 
bays and gulfs indenting the islands have been for ages the happy 
hunting-grounds of the fisherman. The rivers are well stocked with 

* The results of Dr. Asa Gray's investigations of the herbarium brought to the 

United States by the Perry expedition are summed up as follows : 
4S per cent, had corresponding European representatives, 
37 " " *« " Western North American representatives, 

61 " " " " Eastern North American representatives; 

while 

27 per cent, were identical with European species, 
20 " " " " " Western North American species, 

23 " " •• " " Eastern North American species. 

"Dr. Gray's report was drawn up in 1858, when Japanese botany was little 

known, and considerable alteration might be made in his figures; but there can 

be little doubt that the general result would be the same." 



THE BACKGROUND. 25 

many varieties of fresh-water fish. In Yezo the finest salmon exist in 
mexhaustible supply, while almost every species of edible shell-fish, 
mollusca and Crustacea, enlivens the shores of the islands, or fertilizes 
the soil with its catacombs. So abundant is fish that fish-manure is 
an article of standard manufacture, sale, and use. The variety and 
luxuriance of edible sea-weed are remarkable. 

The aspects of nature in Japan, as in most volcanic countries, com- 
prise a variety of savage hideousness, appalling destructiveness, and 
almost heavenly beauty. From the mountains burst volcanic erup- 
tions; from the land come tremblings; from the ocean rises the 
tidal wave ; over it blows the cyclone. Floods of rain in summer 
and autumn give rise to inundations and land-slides. During three 
months of the year the inevitable, dreaded typhoon may be expected, 
as the invisible agent of hideous ruin. Along the coast the winds 
and currents are very variable. Sunken and emerging rocks line the 
shore. All these make the dark side of nature to cloud the imagina- 
tion of man, and to create the nightmare of superstition. But Nat- 
ure's glory outshines her temporary gloom, and in presence of her 
cheering smiles the past terrors are soon forgotten. The pomp of 
vegetation, the splendor of the landscape, and the heavenly gentleness 
of air and climate come to soothe and make vivacious the spirits of 
man. The seasons come and go with well-nigh perfect regularity; 
the climate at times reaches the perfection of that in a temperate zone 
— not too sultry in summer, nor raw in winter. A majority of the 
inhabitants rarely see ice over an inch thick, or snow more than twen- 
ty-four hours old. The average lowest point in cold weather is prob- 
ably 20° Fahrenheit* 

The surrounding ocean and the variable winds temper the climate 
in summer ; the Kuro Shiwo, the Gulf Stream of the Pacific, modifies 
the cold of winter. A sky such as ever arches over the Mediterra- 
nean bends above Japan, the ocean walls her in, and ever green and fer- 
tile land is hers. With healthful air, fertile soil, temperate climate, a 
land of mountains and valleys, with a coast -line indented with bays 
and harbors, food in plenty, a country resplendent with natural beau- 
ty, but liable at any moment to awful desolation and hideous ruin, 
what influences had Nature in forming the physique and character of 
the people who inhabit Japan ? 



* For statistics relating to nearly all the subjects treated of in this chapter, see 
appendices at the end of this volume. 



26 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE, 



II. 

THE ABORIGINES* 

In seeking the origin of the Japanese people, we must take into 
consideration the geographical position of their island chain, with ref- 
erence to its proximity to the main-land, and its situation in the ocean 
currents. Japanese traditions and history may have much to tell us 
concerning the present people of Japan — whether they are exclusively 
an indigenous race, or the composite of several ethnic stocks. From 
a study, however imperfect, of the language, physiognomy, and bodily 
characteristics, survivals of ancient culture, historic geology, and the 
relics of man's struggle with nature in the early ages, and of the act- 
ual varieties of mankind now included within the mikado's domin- 
ions,f we may learn much of the ancestors of the present Japanese. 

The horns of the crescent - shaped chain of Dai Nippon approach 
the Asiatic continent at the southern end of Corea and at Siberia. 
Nearly the whole of Saghalin is within easy reach of the continent 
by canoe. At the point called Norato, a little north of the fifty-sec- 
ond parallel, the opposite shore, but five miles distant, is easily seen. 
The water is here so shallow that junks can not cross it at low tide. 
After long prevalent favorable winds, the ground is left dry, and the 



* I use the term "aborigines" for the sake of convenience, being by no means 
absolutely sure that those I so designate were the first people in situ. It has 
been conjectured and held by some native scholars that there was in Japan a pre- 
Aino civilization ; though of this there is scarcely a shadow of proof, as there is 
proof for an ancient Malay civilization higher than the present condition of the 
Malays. By the term "aborigines" I mean the people found on the soil at the 
dawn of history. 

t In compiling this chapter I have used, in addition to my own material and 
that derived from Japanese books, students, and residents in Tezo, the careful 
notes of the English travelers, Captains Bridgeford and Blakiston, and Mr. Ernest 
Satow, and the reports and verbal accounts of the American engineers and geolo- 
gists in the service of the Kai Taku Shi (Department for the Development of 
Yezo), organized in 1869 by the Imperial Government of Japan. Of these latter, 
I am especially indebted to Professors B. S. Lyman, Henry S. Munroe, and Thomas 
Antisell, M.D. 



THE ABORIGINES. 27 

natives can walk dry-shod into Asia. During three or four months 
in the year it is frozen over, so that, with dog-teams or on foot, com- 
munication is often a matter of a single hour. In Japanese atlases, 
on the map of Karafto, a sand -bank covered by very shallow water 
is figured as occupying the space between the island and the conti- 
nent. A people even without canoes might make this place a gate 
of entrance into Saghalin. The people thus entering Japan from the 
north would have the attraction of richer supplies of food and more 
genial climate to tempt them southward. As matter of fact, com- 
munication is continually taking place between the Asiatic main-land 
and Saghalin. 

Japan occupies a striking position in the ocean currents which flow 
up from the Indian Ocean and the Malay peninsula. That branch of 
the great equatorial current of the Pacific, called the Kuro Shiwo, or 
Black Stream, on account of its color, flows up in a westerly direction 
past Luzon, Formosa, and the Liu Kiu Islands, striking the south point 
of Kiushiu, and sometimes, in summer, sending a branch up the Sea of 
Japan. With great velocity it scours the east coast of Kiushiu, the 
south of Shikoku ; thence, with diminished rapidity, enveloping both 
the group of islands south of the Bay of Yedo and Oshima ; and, at 
a point a little north of the latitude of Tokio, it leaves the coast of Ja- 
pan, and flows north-east toward the shores of America. With the 
variable winds, cyclones, and sudden and violent storms continually 
arising, for which the coasts of Eastern Asia are notorious, it is easily 
seen that the drifting northward from the Malay Archipelago of boats 
and men, and sowing of the shores of Kiushiu, Shikoku, and the west- 
ern shores of Hondo with people from the south and west, must have 
been a regular and continuous process. This is shown to be the fact 
in Japanese history, in both ancient and modern times, and is taking 
place nearly every year of the present century. 

It seems most probable that the savages descended from the north, 
tempted south by richer fisheries and a warmer climate, or urged on 
by successive immigrations from the continent. There is abundant 
evidence from Japanese history of the habitation of the main island 
by the Ainos, the savages whose descendants now occupy Yezo. Shi- 
koku and Kiushiu were evidently peopled by mixed races, sprung of 
the waifs from the various shores of Southern Asia. When the con- 
querors landed in Kiushiu, or, in sacred Japanese phrase, " when our 
divine ancestors descended from heaven to the earth," they found the 
land peopled by savages, under tribal organizations, living in villages, 



28 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

each governed by a head-man. Conquering first the aborigines oi 
Kiushiu and Shikoku, they advanced into the main island, fought and 
tranquilized the Ainos, then called Ebisu, or barbarians, and fixed their 
capital not far from Kioto. The Ainos were not subjugated in a 
day, however, and continual military operations were necessary to keep 
them quiet. Only after centuries of fighting were they thoroughly 
subdued and tranquilized. The traveler to-day in the northern part 
of the main island may see the barrows of the Ainos' bones slain by 
Japanese armies more than a millennium ago. One of these moundsj 
near Morioka, in Rikuchiu, very large, and named " Yezo mori " (Aino 
mound), is especially famous, containing the bones of the aborigines 
slaughtered, heaps upon heaps, by the Japanese shogun (general), Ta- 
mura, who was noted for being six feet high, and for his many bloody 
victories over the Ebisu. 

For centuries more, the distinction between conquerors and con- 
quered, as between Saxon and Norman in England, was kept up ; but 
at length the fusion of races was complete, and the homogeneous Jap- 
anese people is the result. The remnants of Ainos in Yezo, shut off 
by the straits of Tsugarii from Hondo, have preserved the aboriginal 
blood in purity. 

The traditional origin of the Ainos, said to be given by them- 
selves, though I suspect the story to be an invention of the conquer- 
ors, or of the Japanese, is as follows : A certain prince, named 
Kamui, in one of the kingdoms in Asia, had three daughters. One 
of them having become the object of the incestuous passion of her 
father, by which her body became covered with hair, quit his palace 
in the middle of the night, and fled to the sea-shore. There she found 
a deserted canoe, on board which was only a large dog. The yoang 
girl resolutely embarked with her only companion to journey to some 
place in the East. After many months of travel, the young princess 
reached an uninhabited place in the mountains, and there gave birth 
to two children, a boy and a girl. These were the ancestors of the 
Aino race. Their offspring in turn married, some among each other, 
others with the bears of the mountains. The fruits of this latter un- 
ion were men of extraordinary valor, and nimble hunters, who, after 
a long life spent in the vicinity of their birth, departed to the far 
north, where they still live on the high and inaccessible table-lands 
above the mountains ; and, being immortal, they direct, by their mag- 
ical influences, the actions and the destiny of men, that is, the Ainos. 

The term "Aino " is a comparatively modern epithet, applied by the 



THE ABORIGINES. 29 

Japanese. Its derivation, as given by several eminent native scholars 
whom I have consulted, is from inu, a dog. Others assert that it is 
an abbreviation of ai no ko, " offspring of the middle ;" that is, a 
breed between man and beast. Or, if the Japanese were believers in 
a theory called of late years the " Darwinian," an idea by no means 
unknown in their speculations, the Ainos would constitute the " miss- 
ing link," or " intermediate " between man and the brutes. In the 
ancient Japanese literature, and until probably the twelfth century, 
the Ainos were called Ebisii, or savages. 

The proofs from language of the Aino ancestry of the Japanese are 
very strong. So far as studied, the Aino tongue and the Altai dia- 
lects are said to be very similar. The Aino and Japanese languages 
differ no more than certain Chinese dialects do from each other. 
Ainos and Japanese have little difficulty in learning to speak the lan- 
guage of each other. The most ancient specimens of the Japanese 
tongue are found to show as great a likenesss to the Aino as to mod- 
ern Japanese. 

Further proofs of the general habitation of Hondo by the Ainos 
appear in the geographical names which linger upon the mountains 
and rivers. These names, musical in sound, and possessing, in their 
significance, a rude grandeur, have embalmed the life of a past race, 
as the sweet names of "Juniata" and "Altamaha," or the sonorous 
onomatopes of " Niagara," " Katahdin," and "Tuscarora" echo the 
ancient glories of the well-nigh extinct aborigines of America, who in- 
deed may be brethren of the Ainos. These names abounding in the 
north, especially in the provinces north of the thirty-eighth parallel, 
are rare in the south, and in most cases have lost their exact ancient 
pronunciation by being for centuries spoken by Japanese tongues. 

The evidences of an aboriginal race are still to be found in the rel- 
ics of the Stone Age in Japan. Flint, arrow and spear heads, ham- 
mers, chisels, scrapers, kitchen refuse, and various other trophies, are 
frequently excavated, or may be found in the museum or in homes of 
private persons. Though covered with the soil for centuries, they 
seem as though freshly brought from an Aino hut in Yezo. In scores 
of striking instances, the very peculiar ideas, customs, and superstitions, 
of both Japanese and Aino, are the same, or but slightly modified. 

Amidst many variations, two distinctly marked types of features 
are found among the Japanese people. Among the upper classes, the 
fine, long, oval face, with prominent, well-chiseled features, deep-sunk- 
en eye-sockets, oblique eves, long, drooping eyelids, elevated and arch- 

3 



30 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ed eyebrows, high and narrow forehead, rounded nose, bud-like month, 
pointed chin, small hands and feet, contrast strikingly with the round, 
flattened face, less oblique eyes almost level with the face, and straight 
noses, expanded and upturned at the roots. The former type prevails 
among the higher classes — the nobility and gentry ; the latter, among 
the agricultural and laboring classes. The one is the Aino, or north- 
ern type ; the other, the southern, or Yamato type. In the accom- 




The High and the Low Type of the Japanese Face— Aristocratic and Plebeian. (Lady 

and Maid-servant.) 

panying cut this difference is fairly shown in the strongly contrasting 
types of the Japanese lady and her servant, or child's nurse. The 
modern Ainos are found inhabiting the islands of Yezo, Saghalin, the 
Kuriles, and a few of the outlying islands. They number less than 
twenty thousand in all. 

As the Aino of to-day is and lives, so Japanese art and traditions 
depict him in the dawn of history : of low stature, thick - set, full- 
bearded, bushy hair of a true black, eyes set at nearly right angles 
with the nose, which is short and thick, and chipped at the end, mus- 
cular in frame and limbs, with big hands and feet. His language, re- 
ligion, dress, and general manner of life are the same as of old. He 
has no alphabet, no writing, no numbers above a thousand. His rice, 
tobacco, and pipe, cotton garments, and worship of Yoshitsune, are of 
course later innovations — steps in the scale of civilization. Since the 
Restoration of 1868, a number of Ainos of both sexes have been liv-» 



THE ABORIGINES. 31 

ing in Tokio, under instruction of the Kai Taku. Shi (Department for 
the Colonization of Yezo). I have had frequent opportunities of study- 
ing their physical characteristics, language, and manners. 

Their dwellings in Yezo are made of poles covered over with thick 
straw mats, with thatched roofs, the windows and doors being holes 
1 covered with the same material. The earth beaten down hard forms 
the floor, on which a few coarse mattings or rough boards are laid. 
Many of the huts are divided into two apartments, separated by a 
mud and wattle partition. The fire-place, with its pot-hooks, occupies 
the centre. There being no chimney, the interior walls become thick- 
ly varnished with creosote, densely packed with flakes of carbon, or 
festooned with masses of soot. They are adorned with the imple- 
ments of the chase, and the skulls of animals taken in hunting. 
Scarcely any furniture except cooking-pots is visible. The empyreu- 
matical odor and the stench of fish do not conspire to make the visit 
to an Aino hut very pleasant. 

Raised benches along two walls of the hut afford a sleeping or 
lounging place, doubtless the original of the tokonoma of the modern 
Japanese houses. They sit, like the Japanese, on their heels. Their 
food is mainly fish and sea-weed, with rice, beans, sweet-potatoes, mil- 
let, and barley, which, in Southern Yezo, they cultivate in small plots. 
They obtain rice, tobacco, sake, or rice-beer, an exhilarating beverage 
which they crave as the Indians do " fire-water," and cotton clothing 
from their masters, the Japanese. The women weave a coarse, strong, 
and durable cloth, ornamented in various colors, and ropes from the 
barks of trees. They make excellent dug-out canoes from elm-trees. 
Their dress consists of an under, and an upper garment having tight 
sleeves and reaching to the knees, very much like that of the Japanese. 
The woman's dress is longer, and the sleeves wider. They wear, also, 
straw leggings and straw shoes. Their hair, which is astonishingly 
thick, is clipped short in front, and falls in masses down the back and 
sides to the shoulders. It is of a true black, whereas the hair of the 
Japanese, when freed from unguents, is of a dark or reddish brown, 
and I have seen distinctly red hair among the latter. The beard and 
mustaches of the Ainos are allowed to attain their fullest develop- 
ment, the former often reaching the length of twelve or fourteen inch- 
es. Hence, Ainos take kindly to the " hairy foreigners," Englishmen 
and Americans, whose bearded faces the normal Japanese despise, while 
to a Japanese child, as I found out in Fukui, a man with mustaches ap- 
pears to be only a dragon without wings or tail. Some, not all, of the 



32 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 




older men, but very few of the younger, have their bodies and limbs 
covered with thick black hair, about an inch long. The term " hairy 
Kuriles," applied to them as a characteristic hairy race, is a mythical 
expression of book-makers, as the excessively hirsute covering supposed 
to be universal among the Ainos is not to be found by the investi- 
gator on the ground. Their 
skin is brown, their eyes are 
horizontal, and their noses 
low, with the lobes well 
rounded out. The women 
are of proportionate stature 
to the men, but, unlike them, 
are very ugly. I never met 
with a handsome Aino fe- 
male, though I have seen 
many of the Yezo women. 
Their mouths seem like those 
of ogres, and to stretch from 
ear to ear. This arises from 
• the fact that they tattoo a 
An Aino Chief from Yezo. (From a photograph w ide band of dirty blue, like 
taken in TokiS, 1872.) ,, , -. , , . , -^ ., 

the woad or the ancient Brit- 
ons, around their lips, to the extent of three-quarters of an inch, and 
still longer at the tapering extremities. The tattooing is so com- 
pletely done, that many persons mistake it for a daub of blue paint, 
like the artificial exaggeration of a circus clown's mouth. They in- 
crease their hideousness by joining their eyebrows over the nose by a 
fresh band of tattooing. This practice is resorted to in the case of 
married women and females who are of age, just as that of blacken- 
ing the teeth and shaving the eyebrows is among the Japanese. 

They are said to be faithful wives and laborious helpmates, their 
moral qualities compensating for their lack of physical charms. The 
women assist in hunting and fishing, often possessing equal skill with 
the men. They carry their babies pickapack, as the Japanese moth- 
ers, except that the strap passing under the child is put round the 
mother's forehead. Polygamy is permitted. 

Their weapons are of the rudest form. The three-pronged spear is 
used for the salmon. The single - bladed lance is for the bear, their 
most terrible enemy, which they regard with superstitious reverence. 
Their bows are simply peeled boughs, three feet long. The arrows 



THE ABORIGINES. 33 

are one foot shorter, and, like those used by the tribes on the coast of 
Siberia and in Formosa, have no feather on the shaft. Their pipes are 
of the same form as those so common in Japan and China ; and one 
obtained from an Aino came from Santan, a place in Amurland. 

The Ainos possess dogs, which they use in hunting, understand the 
use of charcoal and candles, make excellent baskets and wicker-work 
of many kinds ; and some of their fine bark - cloth and ornamented 
weapons for their chiefs show a skill and taste that compare very fa- 
vorably with those exhibited by the North American Indians. Their 
oars, having handles* fixed crosswise, or sculls made in two pieces, are 
almost exactly like those of the Japanese. Their river-canoes are dug 
out of a log, usually elm. Two men will fashion one in five days. 
For the sea-coast, they use a frame of wood, lacing on the sides with 
bark fibre. They are skillful canoe-men, using either pole or paddle. 

The language of the Aino is rude and poor, but much like the Jap- 
anese. It resembles it so closely, allowing for the fact that it is utter- 
ly unpolished and undeveloped, that it seems highly probable it is the 
original of the present Japanese tongue. They have no written char- 
acter, no writing of any sort, no literature. A further study may pos- 
sibly reveal valuable traditions held among them, which at present 
they are not known by me to have. 

In character and morals, the Ainos are stupid, good-natured, brave, 
honest, faithful, peaceful, and gentle. The American and English trav- 
elers in Yezo agree in ascribing to them these qualities. Their meth- 
od of salutation is to raise the hands, with the palms upward, and 
stroke the beard. They understand the rudiments of politeness, as 
several of their verbal expressions and gestures indicate. 

Their religion consists in the worship of kami, or spirits. They do 
not appear to have any special minister of religion or sacred struct- 
ure.* They have festivals commemorative of certain events in the 

* Some visitors to the Aino villages in Yezo declare that they have noticed 
there the presence of the phallic shrines and symbols. It might be interesting 
if this assertion, and the worship of these symbols by the Ainos, were clearly 
proved. It would help to settle definitely the question of the origin in Japan of 
this oldest form of fetich worship, the evidences of which are found all over the 
Nippon island-chain, including Yezo. I have noticed the prevalence of these 
shrines and symbols especially in Eastern and Northern Japan, having counted 
as many as a dozen, and these by the roadside, in a trip to Nikko. The barren 
of both sexes worship them, or offer them ex voto. In Sagami, Kadzusa, and even 
in Tokio itself, they were visible as late as 1874, cut in stone and wood. Former- 
ly the toy-shops, porcelain-shops, and itinerant venders of many wares were well 
supplied with them, made of various materials; they were to be seen in the cor- 



34 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

past, and they worship the spirit of Yoshitsune, a Japanese hero, who 
is supposed to have lived among them in the twelfth century, and 
who taught them some of the arts of Japanese civilization. 

The outward symbols of their religion are sticks of wood two or 
three feet long, which they whittle all around toward the end into 
shavings, until the smooth wand contains a mass of pendent curls, as 
seen in the engraving, page 32. They insert several of these in the 
ground at certain places, which they hold sacred. The Ainos also 
deify mountains, the sea, which furnishes their daily food, bears, the 
forests, and other natural objects, which they believe to possess intel- 
ligence. These wands with the curled shavings are set up in every 
place of supposed danger or evil omen. The traveler in Yezo sees 
them on precipices, gorges of mountains, dangerous passes, and river 
banks. 

When descending the rapids of a river in Yezo, he will notice that 
his Aino boatmen from time to time will throw one of these wands 
into the river at every dangerous point or turning. The Ainos pray 
raising their hands above their heads. The Buddhist bonzes have in 
vain attempted to convert them to Buddhism. They have rude songs, 
which they chant to their kami, or gods, and to the deified sea, forest, 
mountains, and bears, especially at the close of the hunting and fish- 
ing season, in all affairs of great importance, and at the end of the 
year. The following is given as a specimen : 

" To the sea which nourishes us, to the forest that protects us, we 
present our grateful thanks. You are two mothers that nourish the 
same child ; do not be angry if we leave one to go to the other." 

" The Ainos will always be the pride of the forest and the sea." 

The inquirer into the origin of the Japanese must regret that as 
yet we know comparatively little of the Ainos and their language. 
Any opinion hazarded on the subject may be pronounced rash. Yet, 
after a study of all the obtainable facts, I believe they unmistakably 



uucopia-banners at New-year's, paraded in the festivals, and at unexpected times 
and places disturbed the foreign spectator. It was like a glimpse of life in the 
antediluvian world, or of ancient India, whence doubtless they came, to see evi- 
dences of this once widely prevalent form of early religion. Buddhist priests 
whom I have consulted affirm, with some warmth, that they arose in the " wick- 
ed time of Ashikaga," though the majority of natives, learned and unlearned, say 
they are the relics of the ancient people, or aborigines. In 1872 the mikado's 
Government prohibited the sale or exposure of these emblems in any form or 
shape, together with the more artistic obscenities, pictures, books, carvings, and 
photographs, sent out from the studios of Paris and London. 



THE ABORIGINES. 35 

point to the Ainos as the primal ancestors of the Japanese ; that the 
mass of the Japanese people of to-day are substantially of Aino stock. 
An infusion of foreign blood, the long* effects of the daily hot baths 
and the warm climate of Southern Japan, of Chinese civilization, of 
agricultural instead of the hunter's method of life, have wrought the 
change between the Aino and the Japanese. 

It seems equally certain that almost all that the Japanese possess 
which is not of Chinese, Corean, or Tartar origin has descended from 
the Aino, or has been developed or improved from an Aino model. 
The Ainos of Yezo hold politically the same relation to the Japanese 
as the North American Indians do to the white people of the United 
States ; but ethnically they are, with probability bordering very closely 
on certainty, as the Saxons to the English.* 

* I need scarcely, except to relieve, by borrowed humor, the dull weighing of 
facts, and the construction of an opinion void of all dogmatism, notice the as- 
sertion elaborated at length by some Americans, Scotchmen, and others too, 
for aught I know, that the Ainos are the " ten lost tribes of Israel," or that 
they are the descendants of the sailors and gold-hunters sent out by King Solo- 
mon to gain spoil for his temple at Jerusalem. Really, this search after the 
" lost tribes " — or have they consolidated into the Wandering Jew ? — is becoming 
absurd. They are the most discovered people known. They have been found in 
America, Britain, Persia, India, China, Japan, and in Yezo. I know of but one 
haystack left to find this needle in, and that is Corea. It will undoubtedly be 
found there. It has been kindly provided that there are more worlds for these 
Alexanders to conquer. It is now quite necessary for the archaeological respect- 
ability of a people that "they be the " lost tribes." To the inventory of wonders 
in Japan some would add that of her containing " the dispersed among the Gen- 
tiles," notwithstanding that the same claim has been made for a dozen other 
nations. 

The Aino Arrow-poison.— Dr. Stuart Eldredge, who has studied the properties 
of the Aino arrow-poison, states that it is made by macerating and pounding the 
roots of one or more of the virulent species of aconite, mixing the mass into a 
paste, with (perhaps) inert ingredients, and burying it in the ground for some 
time. The stiff, dark, reddish-brown paste is then mixed with animal fat, and 
about ten grains' weight of the paste is applied to the bamboo arrow-tips which 
are used to set the bear-traps. The wounded animals are found dead near the 
trap, and their flesh is eaten with impunity, though the hunter cuts off the parts 
immediately near the wound. The Ainos know of no antidote for the poison. 
(See "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 1876.") 



36 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



Ill 

MATERIALS OF HISTORY. 

Before attempting a brief sketch of Japanese history, it may be 
interesting to the reader to know something of the sources of such 
history, and the character and amount of the materials. A dynasty 
of rulers who ostentatiously boast of twenty-five centuries of unbroken 
succession should have solid foundation of fact for their boast. The 
august representatives of the mikado Mutsuhito,* the one hundred 
and twenty-third of the imperial line of Dai Nippon, who, in the pres- 
ence of the President and Congress of the United States, and of the 
sovereigns of Europe, claimed the immemorial antiquity of the Jap- 
anese imperial rule, should have credentials to satisfy the foreigner 
and silence the skeptic. 

In this enlightened age, when all authority is challenged, and a cent- 
ury after the moss of oblivion has covered the historic grave of the 
doctrine of divine right, the Japanese still cling to the divinity of 
the mikado, not only making it the dogma of religion and the engine 
of government, but accrediting their envoys as representatives of, and 
asking of foreign diplomatists that they address his imperial Japanese 
majesty as the King of Heaven (Tenno). A nation that has passed 
through the successive stages of aboriginal migration, tribal govern- 
ment, conquest by invaders, pure monarchy, feudalism, anarchy, and 
modern consolidated empire, should have secreted the material for 
much interesting history. In the many lulls of peace, scholars would 
arise, and opportunities would offer, to record the history which pre- 
vious generations had made. The foreign historian who will bring the 

* Mutsuhito ("meek man"), the present emperor, is the secoud son of the 
mikado Komei (1847-1867), whom he succeeded, and the Empress Fujiwara 
Asako. He was born November 3d, 1850. He succeeded his father February 
3d, 1867 ; was crowned on the 28th day of the Eighth month, 1868 ; and was mar- 
ried on the 28th of the Twelth month, 1868, to Haruko, daughter of Ichijo Tadaka, 
a noble of the second degree of the first rank. She was born on the 17th of the 
Fourth month, 1850. The dowager-em press Asako, mother of the emperor, is 
of the house of Kujo, and was born on the 14th day of the Twelfth month, 1833. 




His Imperial Japanese Majesty, Mutsuhito, Emperor of Japan, and the 123d Mikado 

of the Line. 



MATERIALS OF HIST OB Y. 39 

necessary qualifications to the task of composing a complete history 
of Japan, i. e., knowledge of the languages and literature of Japan, Chi- 
na, Corea, and the dialects of the Malay Archipelago, Siberia, and the 
other islands of the North Pacific, historical insight, sympathy, and 
judicial acumen, has before him a virgin field. 

The body of native Japanese historical writings is rich and solid. 
It is the largest and most important division of their voluminous liter- 
ature. It treats very fully the period between the rise of the noble 
families from about the ninth century until the present time. The 
real history of the period prior to the eighth century of the Christian 
era is very meagre. It is nearly certain that the Japanese possessed 
no writing until the sixth century a.d. Their oldest extant composi- 
tion is the Kojiki, or "Book of Ancient Traditions." It may be called 
the Bible of the Japanese. It comprises three volumes, composed 
a.d. 711, 712. It is said to have been preceded by two similar works, 
written respectively in a.d. 620. and a.d. 681 ; but neither of these 
has been preserved. The first volume treats of the creation of the 
heavens and earth ; the gods and goddesses, called kami ; and the 
events of the holy age, or mythological period. The second and third 
give the history of the mikados* from the year 1 (660 b.c.) to the 
1288th of the Japanese era. It was first printed during a.d. 1624- 
1642. The Nihongi, completed a.d. 720, also contains the Japanese 
cosmogony, records of the mythological period, and brings down the 
annals of the mikado to a.d. 699. These are the oldest books in 
the language. Numerous and very valuable commentaries upon them 
have been written. They contain so much that is fabulous, mythical, 

* "The terra 'mikado' is in general adhered to throughout this work. Other 
titles found in the native literature, and now or formerly in common use, are, Ten- 
shi (Son of Heaven); Tenno, or Ten O (Heaven-king); Kotei (Sovereign Ruler of 
Nations); Kinii (The Forbidden Interior); Dairi (Imperial Palace) ; Chotei (Hall 
of Audience) ; 0-6, or Dai O (Great King) ; O Uji (The Great Family) ; Gosho 
(Palace). In using these titles, the common people add sama, a respectful term, 
after them. Several of them, as is evident, were used originally to denote places. 
It was quite common for the people in later time to speak of the mikado as Mia- 
ko sama, or Uye sama (Superior Lord), in distinction from the shogun, whom they 
designated as Yedo sama. The Chinese characters employed to express the term 
'mikado ' mean Honorable Gate, an idea akin to the Turkish Sublime Porte. Sa- 
tow, however, derives it from mi, great, august, awful ; and to (do in composi- 
tion), place; the notion being that the mikado is too far above ordinary mortals 
to be spoken of directly. Hence the Gate of the Palace is used as a figure for 
him. So, also, Ren-ka (Base of the Chariot, or Below the Palanquin) ; and Hei- 
ka (Foot of the Throne, or of the Steps leading to the Dais), are used to denote 
the imperial person. A term anciently used was Nin O (King of Men)." 



40 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

or exaggerated, that their statements, especially in respect of dates, 
can not be accepted as true history. According to the Kojiki, 
Jinmu Tenno was the first emperor; yet it is extremely doubtful 
whether he was a historical personage. The best foreign scholars and 
critics regard him as a mythical character. The accounts of the first 
mikados are very meagre. The accession to the throne, marriage and 
death of the sovereign, with notices of occasional rebellions put down, 
tours made, and worship celebrated, are recorded, and interesting 
glimpses of the progress of civilization obtained. 

A number of works, containing what is evidently good history, 
illustrate the period between the eighth and eleventh centuries. A 
still richer collection of both original works and modern compilations 
treat of the mediaeval period from the eleventh to the sixteenth cent- 
ury — the age of intestine strife and feudal war. The light which 
the stately prose of history casts upon the past is further heightened 
by the many poems, popular romances, founded on historic fact, and 
the classic compositions called monogatari, all of which help to make 
the perspective of by -gone centuries melt out into living pictures. 
That portion of the history which treats of the introduction, progress, 
and expulsion of Christianity in Japan has most interest to ourselves. 
Concerning it there is much deficiency of material, and that not of a 
kind to satisfy Occidental tastes. The profound peace which followed 
the victories of Iyeyasu, and which lasted from 1600-1868 — the 
scholastic era of Japan — gave the peaceful leisure necessary for the 
study of ancient history, and the creation of a large library of histor- 
ical literature, of which the magnificent works called the Dai Nihon 
Shi (" History of Great Japan "), and Nihon Guai Shi (" Japanese 
Outer, or Military History "), are the best examples. 

Under the Tokugawa shoguns (1603-1868) liberty to explore, chron- 
icle, and analyze the past in history was given ; but the seal of silence, 
the ban of censorship, and the mandate forbidding all publication were 
put upon the production of contemporary history. Hence, the peace- 
ful period, 1600 to 1853, is less known than others in earlier times. 
Several good native annalists have treated of the post-Perry period 
(1 853-1 872), and the events leading to the Restoration. 

In the department of unwritten history, such as unearthed relics, 
coins, weapons, museums, memorial stones, tablets, temple records, etc., 
there is much valuable material. Scarcely a year passes but some 
rich trover is announced to delight the numerous native archaeologists. 

The Japanese are intensely proud of their history, and take great 



MATERIALS OF HIST OH Y. 41 

care in making and preserving records. Memorial - stones, keeping 
green the memory of some noted scholar, ruler, or benefactor, are 
amono- the most striking sights on the highways, or in the towns, vil- 
lages, or temple-yards, betokening the desire to defy the ravages of 
oblivion and resist the inevitable tooth of Time. 

Almost every large city has its published history ; towns and villages 
have their annals written and preserved by local antiquarians ; family 
records are faithfully copied from generation to generation ; diaries, 
notes of journeys or events, dates of the erections of buildings, the 
names of the officiating priests, and many of the subscribing worship- 
ers, are religiously kept in most of the large Buddhist temples and 
monasteries. The bonzes (Jap. bozu) delight to write of the lives of 
their saintly predecessors and the mundane affairs of their patrons. 
Almost every province has its encyclopedic history, and every high- 
road its itineraries and guide-books, in which famous places and events 
are noted. Almost every neighborhood boasts its Old Mortality, or 
local antiquary, whose delight and occupation are to know the past. 
In the large cities professional story-tellers and readers gain a lucrative 
livelihood by narrating both the classic history and the legendary lore. 
The theatre, which in Japan draws its subjects for representation al- 
most exclusively from the actual life, past or present, of the Japanese 
people, is often the most faithful mirror of actual history. Few peo- 
ple seem to be more thoroughly informed as to their own history: 
parents delight to instruct their children in their national lore ; and 
there are hundreds of child's histories of Japan. 

Besides the sober volumes of history, the number of books purport- 
ing to contain truth, but which are worthless for purposes of historical 
investigation, is legion. In addition to the motives, equally operative 
in other countries for the corruption or distortion of historical narra- 
tive, was the perpetual desire of the Buddhist monks, who were in 
many cases the writers, to glorify their patrons and helpers, and to 
damn their enemies. Hence their works are of little value. So 
plentiful are these garbled productions, that the buyer of books always 
asked for jitsu-roku, or " true records," in order to avoid the " zu-zan" 
or " editions of Zu," so called from Zu, a noted Chinese forger of 
history. 

In the chapters on the history of Japan, I shall occasionally quote 
from the text of some of the standard histories in literal translation. 
I shall feel only too happy if I can imitate the terse, vigorous, and 
luminous style of the Japanese annalists. The vividness and pictorial 



42 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

detail of the classic historians fascinate the reader who can analyze 
the closely massed syntax. Many of the pages of the Nihon Guai 
Shi, especially, are models of compression and elegance, and glow 
with the chastened eloquence that springs from clear discernment and 
conviction of truth, gained after patient sifting of facts, and groping 
through difficulties that lead to discovery. Many of its sentences are 
epigrams. To the student of Japanese it is a narrative of intensest 
interest. 

The Kojiki and Nihongi, which give the only records of very an- 
cient Japan, and on which all other works treating of this period are 
based, can not be accepted as sober history. Hence, in outlining the 
events prior to the second century of the Christian era, I head the 
chapters, not as the "Dawn of History," but the " Twilight of Fable." 
From these books, and the collections of ancient myths {Koshi Seibun), 
as well as the critical commentaries and explanations of the Japanese 
rationalists, which, by the assistance of native scholars, I have been 
able to consult, the two following chapters have been compiled.* 

* In the following chapters, I use throughout the modern names of places and 
provinces, to avoid confusion. The ancient name of Kiushiu was Tsukushi, 
which was also applied to the then united provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo. 
Buzen and Bungo were anciently one province, called Toyo. Higo and Hizen 
are modern divisions of Hi no kuni ("The Land of Fire"). Tamba, corrupted 
from Taniwa, and Tango ("Back of Taniwa") were formerly one. Kadzusa and 
Shimosa, contracted from Kami-tsu-fusa and Shimo-tsu-fusa (kami, upper; shimo, 
lower; tsu, ancient form of no; fum, a proper name, tassel), were once united. 
Kodzuke and Shimotsuke, formed like the preceding, were "Upper" and "Low- 
er" Ke. All the region north of Echizen, known and unknown, including Echi- 
zen, Etchiu, Echigo, Kaga, Noto, Uzen, and Ugo, was included under the name 
Koshi no kuni. Later synonyms for Kiushiu are Saikoku (Western Provinces), 
or Chinzei in hooks. Chiugoku (Central Provinces) is applied to the region from 
Tamba to Nagato. Kamigata is a vague term for the country around and toward 
Kioto. 

The Language. — The apparatus for the study of the Japanese language and the 
critical examination of its texts is now, thanks to Anglo- Japanese scholars, both 
excellent and easily accessible. The following are such : Grammars — W. G. As- 
ton' s "Grammar of the Spoken Language " (Nagasaki, 1869), and "Grammar of the 
Written Language of Japan, with a short Chrestomathy ;" London, 1872 : second 
edition, 1877. E. Satow's " Kuaiwa Hen, 25 Exercises in the Yedo Colloquial, for 
the Use of Students, with Notes," 4 vols. ; Yokohama, 1873. J. J. Hoffman, "A 
Japanese Grammar ;" Leiden, 1868: second edition, 1876. S. R. Brown, " Collo- 
quial Japanese;" Shanghae, 1863. "Prendergast's Mastery System, adapted to 
the Study of Japanese or English ;" Yokohama, 1875. Dictionaries — J. C. Hep- 
burn, "Japanese-English and English-Japanese;" Shanghae, 1867: second edi- 
tion, with grammatical introduction ; Shanghae, 1872: pocket edition, New York, 
1873. Satow and Ishibashi, "English- Japanese Dictionary of the Spoken Lan- 
guage ;" London, 1876. See also valuable papers by Messrs. Satow, Aston, Dallas, 
Edkins, and Chamberlain, in the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan." 



JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY. 43 



IV. 

JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY. 

In the beginning all things were in chaos. Heaven and earth were 
not separated. The world floated in the cosmic mass, like a fish in 
water, or the yolk in an egg. The ethereal matter sublimed and 
formed the heavens, the residuum became the present earth, from the 
warm mold of which a germ sprouted and became a self-animate be- 
ing, called Kuni-toko-tachi no mikoto.* Two other beings of like gen- 
esis appeared. After them came four pairs of beings {kami). These 
were all single (hitori-gami, male, sexless, or self -begotten). 

* It will be seen at once that the Japanese scheme of creation starts without 
a Creator, or any First Cause ; and that the idea of space apart from matter is 
foreign to the Japanese philosophical system. Mikoto (masc), mikami (fern.), 
mean " augustness." It is not the same term as mikado. No is the particle of. 

The opening sentence of the Eojiki is as follows : At the time of the beginning 
of heaven and earth there existed three hashira-gami (pillar or chief kami, or 
gods). The name of one kami was Ame-no-naka-nushi-710-kami (Lord of the Mid- 
dle of Heaven); next, Taka-mi-musubi-no-kami (High Ineffable Procreator); next, 
Kami-musubi-no-kami (Ineffable Procreator). These three, existing single, hid 
their bodies (died, or passed away, or became pure spirit [?]). Next, when the 
young land floated like oil moving about, there came into existence, sprouting 
upward like the aslii (rush) shoot, a kami named Umaji-asMkabi-kikoji-no-kami 
(Delightful Rush - sprout) ; next, Ame-no-toko-tacM-no-kami. These two chief 
kami, existing single, hid their bodies. Next, came into existence these three, 
Kuni-no-toko-tachi-no-mikoto, etc., etc. 

The Nihongi opens as follows : Of old, when heaven and earth were not yet 
separated, and the in (male, active, or positive principle) and the yo (female, pass- 
ive, or negative principle) were not yet separated, chaos, enveloping all things, 
like a fowl's egg, contained within it a germ. The clear and ethereal substance 
expanding, became heaven; the heavy and thick substance agglutinating, became 
earth. The ethereal union of matter was easy, but the thickened substance hard- 
ened with difficulty. Therefore, heaven existed first ; the earth was fixed after- 
ward. Subsequently deity (kami) was born (umaru). Now, it is said that, "in 
the beginning of heaven and earth, the soil floated about like a fish floating on 
the top of the water," etc. 

Evidently in the Kojiki we have the purely Japanese theory of creation, and in 
the Nihongi the same account, with Chinese philosophical ideas and terms added. 
In both, matter appears before mind, and the deities have no existence before 
matter. 



44 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Proceeding now to the work of creation, the kami separated the 
primordial substance into the five elements — wood, fire, metal, earth, 
and water — and ordained to each its properties and combination. As 
yet, the division into sexes had not taken place. In [Chinese] philo- 
sophical language, the male (yo) and female {in) principles that per- 
vade all things had not yet appeared. The first manifestation of the 
male essence was Izanagi ; of the female, Izanami. Standing togeth- 
er on the floating bridge of heaven, the male plunged his jeweled fal- 
chion, or spear, into the unstable waters beneath them, and withdraw- 
ing it, the trickling drops formed an island, upon which they descend- 
ed. The creative pair, or divine man and woman, designing to make 
this island a pillar for a continent, separated — the male to the left, the 
female to the right — to make a journey round the island. At their 
meeting, the female spirit spoke first, " How joyful to meet a lovely 
man !" The male spirit, offended that the first use of the tongue had 
been by a woman, required the circuit to be repeated. On their 
second meeting, the man cried out, "How joyful to meet a lovely 
woman !" They were the first couple ; and this was the beginning of 
the art of love, and of the human race. The island (Awaji), with 
seven other large, and many thousand small ones, became the Everlast- 
ing Great Japan.* At Izanami's first conception, the female essence 

* The various names of Japan which I have found in the native literature, or 
have heard in colloquial use, are as follows : 1. Nihon, or Nippon, compounded 
of the words ni, nichi, or nitsu (sun, day) and hon (root, origin, beginning); hence 
Sunrise, Dawn, or Dayspring. Japan is the foreigner's corruption of the Chinese 
Ji-pun, or Ji-puan. The name may have been given by the Chinese or Coreans 
to the land lying east of them, whence the sun rose, or by the conquerors com- 
ing from Manchuria, by way of Corea, eastward. Or, it may have arisen anciently 
among the natives of the western provinces of Japan. It is found in Chinese 
books from the time of the Tang dynasty (618-905 a.d.). 2. Dai Nihon Koku 
(Country of Great Japan). 3. Tashima no Euni (Country of the Eight Great 
Islands), created by Izanagi and Izanami. 4. Onogorojima (Island of the Con- 
gealed Drops), which fell from the jeweled falchion or spear of Izanagi. 5. Shiki 
Shima (Outspread Islands), a name common in poetry, and referring to their be- 
ing spread out like stepping-stones in a Japanese garden. 6. Toyohara Akitsu 
Kuni (Country between Heaven and Earth). 7. Toyoakitsu Euni (Dragon-fly- 
shaped Country), from the resemblance to this insect with its wings outspread. 
8. Toyo Ashiwara Kuni (Fertile Plain of Sweet Flags). 9. Yamato no Euni 
(Land of Great Peace). The same characters are read Wa Eoku by the Chinese, 
and sometimes by the Japanese. 10. Fuso Eoku. Fuso is the name of a tree 
which is fabled to petrify; hence, an emblem of national stability. 11. On Eoku 
(Honorable Country). 12. Shin Eoku, (Land of the Holy Spirits). 13. Eami no 
Euni (The God -land, or Land of the Gods). 14. Horai no Euni (Land of the 
Elixir of Immortality), an allusion to the legend that a Chinese courtier came to 



JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY. 45 

in being more powerful, a female child was born, greatly to the cha- 
grin of the father, who wished for male offspring. The child was 
named Ama-terasu o mikami, or, the Heaven - illuminating Goddess. 
She shone beautifully, and lighted the heavens and the earth. Her 
father, therefore, transferred her from earth to heaven, and gave her 
the ethereal realm to rule over. At this time the earth was close to 
heaven, and the goddess easily mounted the pillar, on which heaven 
rested, to her kingdom. 

The second child was also a female, and was called Tsuki no kami, 
and became the Goddess of the Moon. The third child, Hiruko (leech), 
was a male, but not well formed. When three years old, being still 
unable to stand, his parents made an ark of camphor-wood, and set 
him adrift at sea. He became the first fisherman, and was the God of 
the Sea and of Storms. 

After two girls and a cripple had thus been born, the father was de- 
lighted with the next fruit of his spouse, a fine boy, whom they named 
Sosanoo no mikoto. Of him they entertained the highest hopes. 
He grew up, however, to be a most mischievous fellow, killing people, 
pulling up their trees, and trampling down their fields. He grew 
worse as he grew up. He was made ruler over the blue sea ; but he 
never kept his kingdom in order. He let his beard grow down over 
his bosom. He cried constantly ; and the land became a desert, the 
rivers and seas dried up, and human beings died in great numbers. 
His father, inquiring the reason of his surly behavior, was told that he 
wished to go to his mother, who was in the region under the earth. 
He then made his son ruler over the kingdom of night. The august 
scape-grace still continued his pranks, unable to refrain from mischief. 
One day, after his sister, the Sun-goddess, had planted a field with rice, 
he turned a wild horse loose, which trampled down and spoiled all her 
work. Again, having built a store-house for the new rice, he defiled it 
so that it could not be used. At another time, his sister was sitting 
at her loom, weaving. Sosanoo, having skinned a live horse by draw- 
ing its skin off from the tail to the head, flung the reeking hide over 
the loom, and the carcass in the room. The goddess was so frightened 
that she hurt herself with the shuttle, and, in her wrath, retired to a 



Japan in search of the elixir of immortality. He brought a troop of young men 
and maidens with him. Dying in Japan, he was buried in Kii, and the young 
couples, marrying, colonized Japan. 15. Ko Koku (The Mikado's Empire), Land 
ruled by a Theocratic Dynasty. 16. Tex Koku Nihon (The Empire ruled by a 
Theocratic Dynasty, or, Japan, the Empire governed bv Divine Rulers). 

4 



46 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

cave, closing the mouth with a large rock. Heaven, earth, and the 
four quarters became enshrouded in darkness, and the distinction be- 
tween day and night ceased. Some of the turbulent and ill-mannered 
gods took advantage of the darkness to make a noise like the buzzing 
of flies, and the confusion was dreadful. 

Then all the gods (eight hundred thousand in number) assembled 
on the heavenly river-plain of Yasu, to discuss what was to be done 
to appease the anger of the great goddess. The wisest of the gods 
was intrusted with the charge of thinking out a stratagem to entice 
her forth. The main part of the plan was to make an image of the 
self-imprisoned goddess, which was to be more beautiful than herself, 
and thus excite at once her curiosity and her jealousy. It was to be 
a round mirror like the sun. 

A large rock from near the source of the river was taken to form 
an anvil. To make the bellows, they took the whole skin of a deer, 
and, with iron from the mines of heaven, the blacksmith-god made 
two mirrors, which successively failed to please the gods, being too 
small. The third was large and beautiful, like the sun. 

The heavenly artisans now prepared to make the finest clothes and 
jewelry, and a splendid palace for the Sun-goddess, when she should 
come out. Two gods planted the paper-mulberry and hemp, and pre- 
pared bark and fibre ; while three other gods wove them into coarse^ 
striped, and fine cloth, to deck her dainty limbs. Two gods, the first 
carpenters, dug holes in the ground with a spade, erected posts, and 
built a palace. Another deity, the first jeweler, made a string of ma- 
gatama (curved jewels), the material for a necklace, hair-pins, and 
bracelets. Two other gods held in their hands the sacred wands, 
called tama-gushi. 

Two gods were then appointed to find out, by divination, whether 
the goddess was likely to appear. They caught a buck, tore out a 
bone from one of its forelegs, and set it free again. The bone was 
placed in a fire of cherry-bark, and the crack produced by the heat in 
the blade of the bone was considered a satisfactory omen. 

A sakaki-tree was then pulled up by the roots. To the upper 
branches was hung the necklace of jewels, to the middle was attached 
the mirror, and from the lower branches depended the coarse and fine 
cloth. This was called a gokei. A large number of perpetually crow- 
ing cocks was obtained from (what had been) the region of perpetual 
day. These irrepressible chanticleers were set before the cave, and be- 
gan to crow lustily in concert. The God of Invincibly Strong Hands 



JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY. 47 

was placed in concealment near the rocky door, ready to pull the god- 
dess out at her first peering forth. A goddess with a countenance 
of heavenly glossiness, named Uzume, was appointed manager of the 
dance. She first bound up her flowing sleeves close to her body, un- 
der the armpits, by a creeping plant, called masaki, and donned a head- 
dress made of long moss. While she blew a bamboo tube, with holes 
pierced in it between the joints, the other deities kept time to the mu- 
sic with two flat, hard pieces of wood, which they clapped together. 
Another kami took six bows, and, from the long moss hanging from 
the pine-trees on the high hills, she strung the bows, and made the 
harp called the koto. His son made music on this instrument by 
drawing across the strings grass and rushes, which he held in both 
hands. Bonfires were now lighted before the door of the cavern, and 
the orchestra of fifes, drums, cymbals, and harp began. The goddess 
Uzume now mounted the circular box, having a baton of twigs of 
bamboo grass in one hand, with a spear of bamboo twined with grass, 
on which small bells tinkled. As she danced, the drum-like box pre- 
pared for her resounded, and she, becoming possessed by a spirit of 
folly, sung a song in verses of six syllables each, which some inter- 
pret as the numerals, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000. 
The goddess, as she danced, loosened her dress, exposing her nude 
charms. All this was caused by the spirit which possessed her. It 
so excited the mirth of the gods that they laughed so loudly that 
heaven shook. The song and its interpretations are : 

" Hito, futa, miyo One, two, three, four, 

Itsu, muyu, nana Five, six, seven, 

Ya, koko-no, tari Eight, nine, ten, 

Momo, chi, yorodzu Hundred, thousand, ten thousand." 

" Ye gods, behold the cavern doors ! 
Majesty appears — hurra! 
Our hearts are quite satisfied ; 
Behold my charms." 
or, 

" Gods, behold the door! 
Lo ! the majesty of the goddess ! 
Shall we not be filled with rapture ? 
Are not my charms excellent?" 

The Sun-goddess within, unable to account for the ill-timed mirth, 
since heaven and earth were in darkness, rose, and approaching the 
rocky door, listened to the honeyed words of one of the gods, who 
was praising her. Impelled further by curiosity, she opened the 



48 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

door slightly, and asked why Uzume danced and the gods laughed? 
Uzume replied, " I dance because there is an honorable deity who sur- 
passes your glory." As she said thi3, the exceedingly beauteous god 
Futodama showed the mirror. The Sun-goddess within, astonished at 
her own loveliness, which she now first beheld in the reflection, step- 
ped out a little further to gratify her curiosity. The God of Invinci- 
bly Strong Hands, who stood concealed, pulled the rock door open, 
caught her by the hand, and dragged her forth. The wisest of the 
gods, who superintended the whole proceedings, took a rope of twist- 
ed rice-straw, passed it behind her, and said, "Do not go behind this." 
They then removed the Sun -goddess to her new palace, and put a 
straw rope around it to keep off evil gods. Her wicked brother was 
punished by having each particular hair of his head pulled out, and 
his finger and toe nails extracted. He was then banished. 

Izanami's fifth child, the last in whose conception the two gods 
shared, was a son, called the God of Wild Fire. In bringing him 
forth the goddess suffered great pain ; and from the matter which she 
vomited in her agony sprung the God and Goddess of Metal. She aft- 
erward created the gods of Clay and Fresh Water, who were to pacify 
the God of Fire when inclined to be turbulent. Izanamihad enjoined 
her consort not to look at her during her retirement, but he disre- 
garded her wish. She fled from him, and departed to the nether re- 
gions. Izanagi, incensed at the God of Fire, clove him in three pieces 
with his sword. From these fragments sprung the gods of Thunder, 
of Mountains, and of Rain. He then descended into the region of 
night to induce Izanami to come back to the earth. There he met 
his consort, who would not return. He found the region to be one 
of perpetual and indescribable foulness, and, before he left, he saw 
the body of his wife had become a mass of putrefaction. Escaping 
into the upper world, he washed himself in the sea, and, in the act of 
escape and purification, many gods were created. According to one 
version, Amaterasu was produced out of his left eye, and Sosanoo 
out of his nose. Those deities created out of the filth from which he 
cleansed himself became the wicked gods, who now war against the 
good gods and trouble mankind. The God of Clay and the Goddess 
of Fresh Water married. Their offspring was Naka musubi. From 
his head grew the mulberry and silk-worm, and from his navel sprung 
the five cereals, rice, wheat, beans, millet, and sorghum. 

Another legend, changing the sex of Sosanoo, says the Sun-goddess 
spoke to Sosanoo (the Moon-goddess), who reigned jointly with her 



JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY. 49 

over the high plain of heaven, and said, " I have heard that there is 
a food-possessing goddess in the central country of luxuriant reedy 
moors (Japan). Go and see." Descending from heaven, he came to 
the auo-ust abode of the Goddess of Food, and asked for refreshment. 
The goddess, creating various forms of food, such as boiled rice from 
the land, fish from the sea, beasts, with coarse and fine hair, from the 
hills, set them on a banqueting-table before Sosanoo, who, enraged at 
the manner of the creation of the food, killed her. 

Reporting the matter in heaven, Arnaterasu was angry at Sosanoo, 
and degraded her (the Moon-goddess) from joint rule, and condemned 
her to appear only at night, while she, the Sun-goddess, slept. Arna- 
terasu then sent a messenger the second time to see whether the 
Food-goddess was really dead. This was found to be the case. Out 
of the dead body were growing, millet on the forehead; silk-worms 
and a mulberry-tree on the eyebrows ; grass on the eyes ; on the belly, 
rice, barley, and large and small beans. The head finally changed 
into a cow and horse. The messenger took them all, and presented 
them to Arnaterasu. The Sun -goddess rejoiced, and ordained that 
these should be the food of human beings, setting apart rice as the 
seed of the watery fields, and the other cereals as the seed of the dry 
fields. She appointed lords of the villages of heaven, and began for 
the first time to plant the rice-seeds. In the autumn the drooping 
ears ripened in luxuriant abundance. She planted the mulberry-trees 
on the fragrant hills of heaven, and rearing silk-worms, and chewing 
cocoons in her mouth, spun thread. Thus began the arts of agricult- 
ure, silk-worm rearing, and weaving. 

When Sosanoo was in banishment, there was a huge eight-headed 
dragon that had devastated the land and eaten up all the fair virgins. 
Sosanoo enticed the monster to partake of an intoxicating liquor set 
in eight jars, and then slew him while in stupor. In the tail of the 
dragon he found a sword of marvelous temper, which he presented 
to Arnaterasu. This sword, called " Cloud-cluster," afterward became 
one of the three sacred emblems constituting the regalia of the Jap- 
anese sovereigns. In these last days of commerce, Sosanoo's exploit 
is pictured on the national paper money. He is also said to have in- 
vented poetry. Being as irregularly amorous as the Jupiter of anoth- 
er mythology, he was the father of many children by various mothers. 
One of the most illustrious of his offspring was Daikokii, now wor- 
shiped in every household as the God of Fortune. In the later stages 
of the mythology, heaven and earth are found peopled with myriads 



50 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

of kami, some of whom have inhabited heaven from the beginning, 
while those on the earth have been ruling or contending together 
from an indefinite period. Finally, before ushering in the third or 
final stage of the mythical history, there are general war and confu- 
sion among the gods on earth, and Amaterasii resolves to bring ordei 
out of the troubles, and to subdue and develop the land for herself. 

She desired to make a son of her own a ruler over the terrestrial 
world. One had been produced from her necklace, called Oshi-ho- 
mi no mikoto, who married Tamayori hime no mikoto, one of the 
granddaughters of Izanagi and Izanami. Their offspring was Ninigi 
no mikoto. After much delay, caused by the dispatch and failure of 
envoys to the gods of the earth, he prepared to descend from heaven 
to his realm on earth. The Sun -goddess gave her grandson various 
treasures, chief of which were the mirror, emblem of her own soul, 
and now worshiped at Ise, the sword Cloud-cluster, taken by Sosanoo 
from the dragon's tail, and a stone or seal. Concerning the mirror 
she said, " Look upon this mirror as my spirit ; keep it in the same 
house and on the same floor with yourself, and worship it as if you 
were worshiping my actual presence." 

Another version of this divine investiture is given in these words : 
" For centuries upon centuries shall thy followers rule this kingdom. 
Herewith receive from me the succession and the three crown talis- 
mans. Should you at any future time desire to see me, look in this 
mirror. Govern this country with the pure lustre that radiates from 
its surface. Deal with thy subjects with the gentleness which the 
smooth rounding of the stone typifies. Combat the enemies of thy 
kingdom with this sword, and slay them on the edge of it." 

Accompanied by a number of inferior gods of both sexes, he de- 
scended on the floating bridge of heaven, on which the first pair had 
stood when separating the dry land from the water, to the mountain 
of Kirishima, between Hiuga and Ozumi, in Kiushiu. After his de- 
scent, the sun and earth, which had already receded from each other 
to a considerable distance, became further separated, and communica- 
tion by the floating bridge of heaven ceased. According to the com- 
mentators on the sacred books, as Japan lay directly opposite to the 
sun when it separated from the earth, it is clear (to a devout Japanese) 
that Japan lies on the summit of the globe. As it was created first, 
it is especially the Land of the Gods, the Holy Land, the Country of 
the Divine Spirits. All other countries were formed later by the 
spontaneous consolidation of the foam and mud of the sea. All for- 



JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY. 51 

eign countries were of course created by the power of the heavenly- 
gods, but they were not begotten by Izanagi and Izanami, nor did 
they give birth to the Sun-goddess, which is the cause of their in- 
feriority. Japan is superior to all the world for the reasons given 
above. The traditions current in other countries as to the origin of 
the world are of course incorrect, since, being so far from the sources 
of truth, they can not be accurate, and must be greatly distorted. 
From the fact of the divine descent of the Japanese people proceeds 
their immeasurable superiority to the natives of other countries in 
courage and intelligence. This opinion, long held by Japanese in 
general, still lingers among the fanatical Shinto scholars, and helps to 
explain the intense hatred and contempt manifested toward foreigners 
as late as within the last decade. 

Ninigi no mikoto descended on Kirishima yama, and was received 
with due honors by one of the kami of the place. He had a son, who 
lived five hundred and eighty years. This son married a sea-monster, 
who appeared to him in the form of a woman, and by her he had a 
son, who became ruler, and was succeeded by a son born of an aunt. 
Ninigi, the heavenly descendant, was thus the great-grandfather of 
Jimmu Tenno, the first emperor of Japan. 

It is not easy to weave into a continuous and consistent whole the 
various versions of the Japanese accounts of creation and the acts of 
the gods, or to be always safe in deciding their origin, sex, or relations 
to each other ; for these spirits act like Milton's, and " as they please, 
they limb themselves." These myths arising among the primitive 
Japanese people of various localities, who never attempted to formulate 
them, are frequently at hopeless variance with each other ; and the in- 
genuity and ability of the learned native commentators on the sacred 
books, especially the Nihongi and Kojiki, are exercised to the highest 
degree to reconcile them. 

One author devotes twenty volumes of comment to two of the text 
of the Kojiki in these earnest efforts, making his works a rich mine 
to the student of Japanese antiquities. Translated into English, in the 
spirit of a devout Japanese, an exalted Biblical or Miltonic style should 
be used. Mr. Aston thus renders a passage from the Nakatomi no 
harai, one of the most ancient monuments of the language, describing 
the descent of the god Ninigi to the earth (Japan) : " They caused 
him to thrust from him heaven's eternal throne, to fling open heaven's 
eternal doors, to cleave with might his way from out heaven's many- 
piled clouds, and then to descend from heaven." 



52 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

A literal, or even free, translation into plain English could not, 
however, be made in a book to be read, unexpurgated, in the family 
circle. Many physiological details, and not a few references probably, 
pure to the native pure, would not be suffered by the tastes or moral 
codes in vogue among the mass of readers in Europe or America. 
Like the mythology of Greece, that of Japan is full of beauty, pathos, 
poetic fancy, charming story, and valorous exploit. Like that, it forms 
the soil of the national art, whether expressed in bronze, porcelain, 
colors ; or poetry, song, picture, the dance, pantomime, romance, sym- 
bolism ; or the aesthetics of religion. 

In spite of Buddhism, rationalism, and skeptical philosophy, it has 
entered as fully into the life and art and faith of the people of Japan 
as the mythology of the Aryan nations has entered into the life and 
art of Europe. Like that of the nations classic to us, the Japanese 
mythology, when criticised in the light of morals, and as divorced 
from art, looked at by one of alien clime, race, and faith, contains 
much that is hideous, absurd, impure, and even revolting. Judged as 
the growth and creation of the imagination, faith, and intellect of the 
primitive inhabitants of Japan, influenced by natural surroundings, it 
is a faithful mirror of their country, and condition and character, 
before these were greatly modified by outside religion or philoso- 
phy. Judged as a religious influence upon the descendants of the an- 
cient Nihonese — the Japanese, as we know them — it may be fairly 
held responsible for much of the peculiar moral traits of their charac- 
ter, both good and evil. The Japanese mythology is the doctrinal ba- 
sis of their ancient and indigenous religion, called Kami no michi, or 
Shinto (way or doctrine of the gods, or, by literal rendering, theology). 

One of the greatest pleasures to a student of Japanese art, antiqui- 
ties, and the life as seen in the Japan of to-day, is to discover the sur- 
vivals of primitive culture among the natives, or to trace in their cus- 
toms the fashions and ceremonies current tens of centuries ago, whose 
genesis is to be sought in the age of the gods. Beneath the poetic 
and mythical costume are many beautiful truths. 

One of the many Japanese rationalistic writers explains the hiding 
of Amaterasu in the cave as an eclipse of the sun. Ebisu, the third 
child of the first pair, is now worshiped as the God of Daily Food, 
fish being the staple of Japanese diet. He is usually represented as 
a jolly angler, with a red fish (tai) under one fat arm, and a rod and 
line under the other. One need not go far from Kioto to find the 
identical spots of common earth which the fertile imagination of 



JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY. 53 

the children of Nippon has transfigured into celestial regions. Thus, 
the prototype of " the dry bed of the river Ame no yasii " is now to 
be seen in front of the city of Kioto, where the people still gather for 
pleasure or public ceremony. The " land of roots," to which Sosanoo 
was banished, is a region evidently situated a few miles north-west of 
Kioto. The dancing of Suzume before the cavern is imitated in the 
pantomimic dance still seen in every Japanese village and city street. 
The mirror made from iron in the mines of heaven by the Blacksmith- 
god was the original of the burnished disks before w T hich the Japanese 
beauty of to-day, sitting for hours on knee and heels, and nude to the 
waist, heightens her charms. A mask of Suzume, representing the 
laughing face of a fat girl, with narrow forehead, having the imperial 
spots of sable, and with black hair in rifts on her forehead, cheeks 
puffed out, and dimpled chin, adorns the walls of many a modern Jap- 
anese house, and notably on certain festival days, and on their many 
occasions of mirth. The stranger, ignorant of its symbolic import, 
could, without entering the palace, find its prototype in five minutes, 
by looking around him, from one of the jolly fat girls at the well or 
the rice-bucket. The. magatama jewels, curved and perforated pieces 
of soap-stone occasionally dug up in various parts of Japan, show the 
work of the finger of man, and ancient pictures depict the chiefs of 
tribes decked with these adornments. In the preparations made to 
attract forth the Sun-goddess, we see the origin of the arts of music by 
wind and stringed instruments, dancing, divination, adornment, weav- 
ing, and carpentry. To this day, when the Japanese female is about 
to sweep, draw water, or perform household duties, she binds up her 
sleeves to her armpits, with a string twisted over her shoulders, like 
the sleeve - binder of the dancing goddess. Before Shinto shrines, 
trees sacred to the kami, at New-year's-day before gates and doors, 
and often in children's plays, one sees stretched the twisted ropes of 
rice-straw. In the month of August especially, but often at the fairs, 
festivals, and on holidays, the wand of waving jewels, made by sus- 
pending colored paper and trinkets to a branch of bamboo, and some- 
thing like a Christmas-tree, is a frequent sight. The gohei is still the 
characteristic emblem seen on a Shinto shrine. All these relics, triv- 
ial and void of meaning to the hasty tourist, or the alien, whose only 
motive for dwelling on the island is purely sordid, are, in the eye of 
the native, and the intelligent foreigner, ancient, sacred, and productive 
of innocent joy, and to the latter, sources of fresh surprise and enjoy- 
ment of a people in themselves intensely interesting. 



54 THE MIKADO' IS EMPIRE. 



V. 

THE TWILIGHT OF FABLE. 

Between the long night of the unknown ages that preceded the 
advent of the conquerors, and the morning of what may be called real 
history, there lies the twilight of mythology and fabulous narration. 

The mythology of Nippon, though in essence Chinese, is Japanese 
in form and coloring, and bears the true flavor of the soil from 
whence it sprung. The patriotic native or the devout Shintoist may 
accept the statements of the Kojiki as genuine history; but in the 
cold, clear eye of an alien they are the inventions of men shaped to ex- 
alt the imperial family. They are a living and luxurious growth of 
fancy around the ruins of facts that in the slow decay of time have 
lost the shape by which recognition is possible. Chinese history does 
indeed, at certain points, corroborate what the Japanese traditions de- 
clare, and thus gives us some sure light ; but for a clear understand- 
ing of the period antedating the second century of the Christian era, 
the native mythology and the fabulous narrations of the Kojiki are 
but as moonlight. 

Jimmu Tenno, the first mikado, was the fifth in descent from the 
Sun-goddess. His original name was Kan Yamato Iware Hiko no 
mikoto. The title Jimmu Tenno, meaning " spirit of war," was post- 
humously applied to him many centuries afterward. When the Ko- 
jiki was compiled, pure Japanese names only were in use. Hence, in 
that book we meet with many very long quaint names and titles 
which, when written in the Chinese equivalents, are greatly abbrevi- 
ated. The introduction of the written characters of China at a later 
period enabled the Japanese to express almost all their own words, 
whether names, objects, or abstract ideas, in Chinese as well as Japa- 
nese. Thus, in the literature of Japan two languages exist side by 
side, or imbedded in each other. This applies to the words only. 
Japanese syntax, being incoercible, has preserved itself almost entirely 
unchanged. 

The Kojiki states that Jimmu was fifty years old when he set out 



THE TWILIGHT OF FABLE. 55 

upon his conquests. He was accompanied by his brothers and a few 
retainers, all of whom are spoken of as kami, or gods. The coun- 
try of Japan was already populated by an aboriginal people dwelling 
in villages, each under a head-man, and it is interesting to notice how 
the inventors of the Kojiki account for their origin. They declare, 
and the Japanese popularly believe, that these aboriginal savages were 
the progeny of the same gods (Izanagi and Izanami) from whom Jim- 
mu sprung ; but they were wicked, while Jimmu was righteous. 

The interpretation doubtless is, that a band of foreign invaders land- 
ed in Hiuga, in Kiushiu, or they were perhaps colonists, who had oc- 
cupied this part of the country for some time previous. The territory 
of Hiuga could never satisfy a restless, warlike people. It is mount- 
ainous, volcanic, and one of the least productive parts of Japan. 

At the foot of the famous mountain of Kirishima, which lies on 
the boundary between Hiuga and Ozumi, is the spot where Jimmu re- 
sided, and whence he took his departure. 

Izanagi and Izanami first, and afterward Ninigi, the fourth ancestor 
of Jimmu, had descended from this same height to the earth. Every 
Japanese child who lives within sight of this mountain gazes with 
reverent wonder upon its summit, far above the sailing clouds and 
within the blue sky, believing that here the gods came down from 
heaven. 

The story of Jimmu's march is detailed in the Kojiki, and the nu- 
merous popular books based upon it. A great many wonderful creat- 
ures and men that resembled colossal spiders were encountered and 
overcome. Even wicked gods had to be fought or circumvented. 
His path was to Usa, in Buzen ; thence to Okada ; thence by ship 
through the windings of the Suwo Xada, a part of the Inland Sea,* 



* The " Inland Sea" (Seto Uchi) is a name which has been given by foreigners, 
and adopted by the Japanese, "who until modern times had no special name for 
it as a whole. Indeed, the whole system of Japanese geographical nomenclature 
proves that the generalizations made by foreigners were absent from their con- 
ceptions. The large bays have not a name which unifies all their parts and limbs 
into one body. The long rivers possess each, not one name, but many local ap- 
pellations along their length. The main island was nameless, so were Shikoku 
and Kiushiu for many centuries. Yezo, to the native, is a region, not an island. 
Even for the same street in a city a single name, as a rule, is not in use, each 
block receiving a name by itself. This was quite a natural proceeding when the 
universe, or "all beneath heaven," meant Japan. The S6to Uchi has been in Jap- 
anese history what the Mediterranean was to the course of empire in Europe, due 
allowance being made for proportions, both physical and moral. It extends near- 
ly east and west two hundred and forty miles, with a breadth varying from ten to 



56 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

landing in Aki. Here he built a palace, and remained seven years. 
He then went to the region of Bizen, and, after dwelling there eight 
years, he sailed to the East. The waves were very rough and rapid 
at the spot near the present site of Ozaka,* where he finally succeeded 
in landing, and he gave the spot the name Nami Haya (swift waves). 
This afterward became, in the colloquial, and in poetry, Naniwa. 

Hitherto the career of the invaders had been one of victory and 
easy conquest, but they now received their first repulse. After severe 
fighting, Jimmu was defeated, and one of his brothers was wounded. 
A council of war was held, and sacred ceremonies celebrated to dis- 
cover the cause of the defeat. The solemn verdict was that as chil- 
dren of the Sun -goddess they had acted with irreverence and pre- 
sumption in journeying in opposition to the course of the sun from 
west to east, instead of moving, as the sun moves, from east to west. 
Thereupon they resolved to turn to the south, and advance westward. 
Leaving the ill-omened shores, they coasted round the southern point 

thirty miles, with many narrow passages. It has six divisions (nada), taking 
their names from the provinces whose shores they wash. It contains avast num- 
ber of islands, but few known dangers, and has a sea-board of seven hundred 
miles, densely populated, abounding with safe and convenient anchorages, dotted 
with many large towns and provincial capitals and castled cities, and noted for 
the active trade of its inhabitants. It communicates with the Pacific by the chan- 
nels of Kii on the east, Bungo on the south, and by the Straits of Shimonoseki 
("the Gibraltar of Japan"), half a mile wide, on the west. It can be navigated 
safely at all seasons of the year by day, and now, under ordinary circumstances, 
by night, thanks to the system of light-houses thoroughly equipped with the latest 
instruments of optical science, including dioptric and catoptric, fixed and revolv- 
ing, white and colored lights, in earthquake-proof towers, erected by English en- 
gineers in the service of the mikado's Government. The tides and currents of 
the S£to Uchi are not as yet perfectly known, but are found to be regular at the 
east and west entrances, the tide-waves coming from the Pacific. In many parts 
they run with great velocity. The cut on page 57 shows one of these narrow 
passages where the eddying currents rush past a rock in mid-channel, scouring 
the shores, and leaving just enough room for the passage of a large steamer. 

A very destructive species of mollusk inhabits the Inland Sea, which perfo- 
rates timber, making holes one -third of an inch in diameter. Sailing-vessels 
bound to Nagasaki sometimes find it better in winter to work through the Inland 
Sea rather than to beat round Cape Chichakoff against the Kuro Shiwo. This lat- 
ter feat is so difficult that sailors are apt to drop the o from the Japanese name 
(Satano) of this cape (misaki) and turn it into an English or Hebrew word. Those 
who are trying to prove that the Japanese are the " lost tribes " might make one 
of their best arguments from this fact. Kaempfer, it may be stated, derived the 
Japanese, by rapid transit, from the Tower of Babel, across Siberia to the islands. 

* The spelling of Ozaka (accent on the 6) is in accordance with the require- 
ments of Japanese rules of orthography, and the usage of the people in Ozaka 
and Kioto. 



THE TWILIGHT OF FABLE. 



51 



of Kii, and landed at Arasaka. Here a peaceful triumph awaited 
them, for the chief surrendered, and presented Jimmu with a sword. 
A representation of this scene, engraved on steel, now adorns the green- 
back of one of the denominations of the national bank-notes issued 
in 1872. The steps of the conqueror were now bent toward Yamato. 
The mountain-passes were difficult, and the way unknown ; but by act 
of one of the gods, Michi no Omi no mikoto, who interposed for their 
guidance, a gigantic crow, having wings eight feet long, went before the 
host, and led the warriors into the rich land of Yamato. -Here they 
were not permitted to rest, for the natives fought stoutly for their soil. 




A Narrow Passage in the Iiiland Sea. 

On one occasion the clouds lowered, and thick darkness brooded 
over the battle-field, so that neither of the hosts could discern each 
other, and the conflict stayed. Suddenly the gloom was cleft by the 
descent from heaven of a bird like a hawk, which, hovering in a flood 
of golden effulgence, perched upon the bow of Jimmu. His adver- 
saries, dazzled to blindness by the awful light, fled in dismay. Jim- 
mu, being now complete victor, proceeded to make his permanent 
abode, and fixed the miako, or capital, at Kashiwabara, some miles 
distant from the present site of Kioto. Here he set up his govern- 
ment, and began to rule over all the lands which he had conquered. 
Peace was celebrated with rejoicings, and religious ceremonies of im- 
posing magnificence. He distributed rewards to his soldiers and offi- 
cers, and chose his chief captains to be rulers over provinces, appor- 
tioning them lands, to be held in return for military service. It will 



58 - THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

be noticed that this primal form of general government was a species 
of feudalism. Such a political system was of the most rudimentary 
kind ; only a little better than the Council of the Six Nations of the 
Iroquois, or was similar to that of the Aztecs of Mexico. 

The country being now tranquilized, weapons were laid aside, and 
attention was given to the arts of peace. Among the first things ac- 
complished was tho solemn deposit of the three sacred emblems — mir- 
ror, sword, and ball — in the palace. Sacrifices were ofiered to the 
Sun-goddess on Torimino yama. 

Jimmu married the princess Tatara, the most beautiful woman in 
Japan, and daughter of one of his captains. During his life-time his 
chief energies were spent in consolidating his power, and civilizing 
his subjects. Several rebellions had to be put down. After choosing 
an heir, he died, leaving three children, at the age of one hundred and 
twenty-seven years, according to the Nihongi, and of one hundred and 
thirty-seven, according to the Kojiki. 

It is by no means certain that Jimmu was a historical character. 
The only books describing him are but collections of myths and fa- 
bles, in which exists, perhaps, a mere skeleton of history. Even the 
Japanese writers, as, for instance, the author of a popular history 
(Dai Nihon KoJcu Kai Biaku Yuraii Ki), interpret the narratives 
in a rationalistic manner. Thus, the " eight-headed serpents " in the 
Kojiki are explained to be persistent arch-rebels, or valorous enemies ; 
the " ground-spiders," to be rebels of lesser note ; and the " spider-pits 
or holes," the rebels' lurking-places. The gigantic crow, with wings 
eight feet long, that led the host into Yamato was probably, says the 
native writer, a famous captain whose name was Karasii (crow), who 
led the advance-guard into Yamato, with such valor, directness, and 
rapidity, that it seemed miraculous. The myth of ascribing the guid- 
ance of the army to a crow was probably invented later. A large 
number of the incidents related in the Kojiki have all the character- 
istics of the myth. 

Chinese tradition ascribes the peopling of Japan to the following 
causes : The grandfather (Taiko) of the first emperor (Buwo) of the 
Shu dynasty (thirty-seven emperors, eight hundred and seventy-two 
years, b.c. 1120-249) in China, having three sons, wished to bequeath 
his titles and estates to his youngest son, notwithstanding that law 
and custom required him to endow the eldest. The younger son re- 
fused to receive the inheritance ; but the elder, knowing that his father 
Taiko would persist in his determination, and unwilling to cause trou- 



THE TWILIGHT OF FABLE. 59 

ble, secretly left his father's house and dominions, and sailed away 
to the South of China. Thence he is supposed to have gone to Ja- 
pan and founded a colony in Hiuga. His name was Taihaku Ki. 
From this legend the Chinese frequently apply the name Kishi Koku, 
or " country of the Ki family," to Japan. 

Whatever may be the actual facts, Jimmu Tenno is popularly be- 
lieved to have been a real person, and the first emperor of Japan. 
He is deified in the Shinto religion, and in thousands of shrines ded- 
icated to him the people worship his spirit. In the official list of 
mikados, he is named as the first. The reigning emperor refers to 
him as his ancestor from whom he claims unbroken descent. The 
7th day of the Fourth month (April 7th) is fixed as the anniversary 
of his ascension to the throne, and that day is a national holiday, on 
which the iron-clad navy of modern Japan fires salutes, from Krupp 
and Armstrong guns, in his honor, and the military, in French uni 
forms, from Snider and Remington rifles, burn in mefnoriam powder. 

The era of Jimmu is the starting-point of Japanese chronology, and 
the year 1 of the Japanese era is that upon which he ascended the 
throne at Kashiwabara.* A large number of Japanese students and 
educated men who have been abroad, or who, though remaining at 
home, have shed their old beliefs, and imbibed the modern spirit of 
nihilism, regard Jimmu as a myth. The majority, however, cling to 
their old belief that the name Jimmu represents a historical verity, 
and hold it as the sheet-anchor of their shifting faith. A young Jap- 
anese, fresh from several years' residence in Europe, was recently ral- 
lied concerning his belief in the divinity of the mikado and in the 
truth of the Kojiki. His final answer was, " It is my duty to believe 
in them." 

* Dr. J. J. Hoffman, who has written the best Japanese grammar yet published, 
in expressing the exact date given in the Kojiki, in terms of the Julian style, 
says the 19th of February (660 B.C.) was the day of Jimmu' s ascension. Pro- 
fessor F. Kaiser has found out by calculation that at eight a.m. on that day of 
the said year there was a new moon at the miako. " Therefore," says this gram- 
marian, leaping on the wings of his own logic to a tremendous conclusion, and 
settling down into assured satisfaction, "the correctness of the Japanese chro- 
nology may not be called in question." (See page 157, aud note of "A Japanese 
Grammar," J. J. Hoffman, Ley den, 1868.) 



60 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



VI. 

SUJIN, THE CIVILIZER. 

Fkom the death of Jimmii Tenno to that of Kimmei, in whose 
reign Buddhism was introduced (a.d. 571), there were, according to 
the Dai Nihon Shi, thirty -one mikados. During this period of 
twelve hundred and thirty-six years, believed to be historic by most 
Japanese, the most interesting subjects to be noted are the reforms of 
Sujin Tenno, the military expeditions to Eastern Japan by Yamato 
Dake, the invasion of Corea by the Empress Jingu Kogo, and the in 
troduction of Chinese civilization and of Buddhism. 

The Nihongi details the history and exploits of these ancient rulers 
with a minuteness and exactness of circumstance that are very sus- 
picious. It gives the precise birthdays and ages of the emperors, who 
in those days attained an incredible longevity. Takenouchi, the Japa- 
nese Methusaleh, lived to be over three hundred and fifty years old, 
and served as prime minister to five successive emperors. Twelve 
mikados lived to be over one hundred years old. One of them ruled 
one hundred and one years. The reigns of the first seventeen aver* 
aged over sixty-one years. From the seventeenth to the thirty-first, 
the average reign is little over twelve years. In the list there are 
many whose deeds, though exaggerated in the mirage of fable, are, in 
the main, most probably historic. 

Sujin, also called Shu j in or Sunin (b.c. 97-30), was, according to 
the Dai Nihon Shi, a man of intense earnestness and piety. The 
traits of courage and energy which characterized his youth gave him 
in manhood signal fitness for his chosen task of elevating his people. 
He mourned over their wickedness, and called upon them to forsake 
their sins, and turn their minds to the worship of the gods. A great 
pestilence having broken out, and the people being still unrepentant, 
the pious monarch rose early in the morning, fasted, and purified his 
body with water, and called on the kami to stay the plague. After 
solemn public worship the gods answered him, and the plague abated. 
A revival of religious feeling and worship followed. In his reign 
dates the building of special shrines for the adoration of the gods. 



SUJIN, THE CIVILIZEB. 61 

Hitherto the sacred ceremonies had been celebrated in the open air. 
Further, the three holy regalia (mirror, sword, and ball) had hith- 
erto been kept in the palace of the mikado. It was believed that 
the efficacy of the spirit was so great that the mikado dwelling with 
the spirit was, as it were, equal to a god. These three emblems had 
been placed within the palace, that it might be said that where they 
were dwelt the divine power. A rebellion having broken out during 
his reign, he was led to believe that this was a mark of the disfavor 
of the gods, and in consequence of his keeping the emblems under 
his own roof. Reverencing the majesty of the divine symbols, and 
fearing that they might be defiled by too close proximity to his car- 
nal body, he removed them from his dwelling, and dedicated them in 
a temple erected for the purpose at Kasanui, a village in Yamato. 
He appointed his own daughter priestess of the shrine and custodian 
of the symbols — a custom which has continued to the present time. 

The shrines of Uji, in Ise, which now hold these precious relics of 
the divine age, are always in charge of a virgin princess of imperial 
blood. Later, being warned by the goddess Amaterasu to do so, she 
carried the mirror from province to province, seeking a suitable lo- 
cality ; but having grown old in their search, Yamato hime* continued 
it, and finally, after many changes, they were deposited in their pres- 
ent place a.d. 4. Copies of the mirror and sword were, however, 
made by Sujin, and placed in a separate building within the palace 
called the "place of reverence." This was the origin of the chapel 
still connected with the mikado's imperial palace. 

From the most early time the dwelling and surroundings of the mi- 
kado were characterized by the most austere simplicity, quite like the 
Shinto temples themselves, and the name miya was applied to both. 
In imagining the imperial palace in Japan, the reader on this side the 
Pacific must dissolve the view projected on his mind at the mention 
of the term " palace." Little of the stateliness of architecture or the 
splendor and magnificence of the interior of a European palace belongs 
to the Japanese imperial residence. A simple structure, larger than an 
ordinary first-class dwelling, but quite like a temple in outward appear- 
ance, and destitute of all meretricious or artistic ornamentation within, 
marks the presence of royalty, or semi-divinity, in Japan. Even in Ki- 
oto, for centuries, the palace, except for its size and slightly greater el- 

* The suffix hime after female proper names means " princess." It is still used 
by the ladies of the imperial family, and by the daughters of the court nobles. 
Maye, with no, was also added to names of ladies of rank. 



62 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



evation, could not be distinguished from the residences of the nobles, 
or from a temple. All this was in keeping with the sacredness of the 
personage enshrined within. For vain mortals, sprung from inferior or 
wicked gods, for upstart generals, or low traders bloated with wealth, 
luxury and display were quite seemly. Divinity needed no material 
show. The circumstances and attributes of deity were enough. The 
indulgence in gaudy display was opposed to the attributes and char- 
acter of the living representative of the Heavenly Line. This rigid 
simplicity was carried out even after death. In striking contrast with 
the royal burial customs of the nations of Asia are those of Japan. 




The Mikado's Method of Travel in very Ancient Times. 



All over the East, the tombs of dead dynasties are edifices of all oth- 
ers the most magnificent. The durable splendor of the homes of the 
departed far exceed that of the palaces of the living. But in Japan, 
in place of the gorgeous mausoleums and the colossal masterpieces of 
mortuary architecture of continental Asia, the sepulchres of the mika- 
dos seem monuments of chaste poverty. Nearly all of the imperial 
tombs are within the three provinces of Yamato, Yamashiro, and Set- 
tsu. A simple base of stone, surmounted by a low shaft, set upon a 
hillock, surrounded by a trench, and inclosed with a neat railing of 
timber, marks the resting-places of the dead emperors. All this is in 
accordance with the precepts of Shinto. 



SUJIX, THE CIVILIZER. 



63 



The whole life of Sujin was one long effort to civilize his half- 
savage subjects. He ordained certain days when persons of both 
sexes must lay aside their regular employment, and give the Govern- 
ment his or her quantum of labor. The term for the labor of the 
men means "bow-point," and of the women "hand-point," implying 
that in the one case military service was the chief requirement, and 
in the other that of the loom or the field. He endeavored, in or- 
der to secure just taxation, to inaugurate a regular periodical census, 
and to reform the methods of dividing and recording time.* He 
encouraged the building of boats, in order to increase the means of 
transportation, promote commerce, and to bring the people at the 
extremities of the country in contact with each other. Communi- 
cation between Corea and Kiushiu was rendered not only possible, 
but promised to be regular and profitable. We read that, during 
his reign, an envoy, bringing presents, arrived from Mimana, in Co- 
rea, B.C. 33. Six years later, it is recorded that the prince, a chief of 
Shiraki, in Corea, came to Japan to live. It is evident that these Co- 
reans would tell much of what they had seen in their own country, 
and that many useful ideas and appliances would be introduced under 
the patronage of this enlightened monarch. Sujin may be also called 
the father of Japanese agriculture, since he encouraged it by edict and 
example, ordering canals to be dug, water-courses provided, and irriga- 
tion to be extensively carried on. Water is the first necessity of the 
rice-farmer of Asia. It is to him as precious a commodity as it is to 
the miner of California. Rice must be sown, transplanted, and grown 
under water. Hence, in a country where this cereal is the staple crop, 
immense areas of irrigated fields are necessary. One of the unique 
forms of theft in rice-countries, which, in popular judgment, equals in 



••" The twenty-four divisions of the solar year (according to the lunar calendar), 
by which the Japanese farmers have for centuries regulated their labors, are as 
follows : 



"Beginning of Spring" February 3. 

"Bain-water" February 19. 

"Awakening of the Insects". ..March 5. 

" Middle of the Spring" March 20. 

" Clear Weather" April 5. 

"Seed Bain" April 20. 

"Beginning of Summer" May 5. 

" Little Plenty" May 20. 

" Transplanting the Bice " June 5. 

"Height of the Summer" June 21. 

"Little Heat" July 6. 

" Great Heat" July 23. 



" Beginning of Autumn " August 7. 

" Local Heat" August 23. 

" White Dew " September S. 

"Middle of Autumn" September 23. 

" Cold Dew" October S. 

" Fall of Hoar-frost" October 23. 

" Beginning of Winter" November 7. 

" Little Snow" November 22. 

"Great Snow" December 7. 

"Height of the Winter" December 22. 

" Little Frost" January 6. 

" Great Frost" January 20. 



64 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

iniquity the stealing of ore at the mines, or horses on the prairies, 
is the drawing off water from a neighbor's field. In those old rude 
times, the Japanese water-thief, when detected, received but little more 
mercy than the horse-robber in the West. The immense labor neces- 
sary to obtain the requisite water-supply can only be appreciated by 
one who has studied the flumes of California, the tanks of India, or 
the various appliances in Southern Asia. In Japan, it is very com- 
mon to terrace, with great labor, the mountain gulches, and utilize the 
stream in irrigating the platforms, thus changing a noisy, foaming 
stream into a silent and useful servant. In many cases, the water is 
led for miles along artificial canals, or ditches, to the fertile soil which 
needs it. On flat lands, at the base of mountains, huge reservoirs are 
excavated, and tapped as often as desired. In the bosom of the Ha- 
kone Mountains, between Sagami and Suruga, is a deep lake of pure 
cold water, over five thousand feet above the sea-level. On the plain 
below are few or no natural streams. Centuries ago, but long after 
Sujin's time, the mountain wall was breached and tunneled by man- 
ual labor, and now through the rocky sluices flows a flood sufficient 
to enrich the millions of acres of Suruga province. The work begun 
by Sujin was followed up vigorously by his successor, as we read that, 
in the year a.d. 6, a proclamation was issued ordering canals and sluices 
to be dug in over eight hundred places. 

The emperor had two sons, whom he loved equally. Unable to de- 
termine which of them should succeed him, he one day told them to 
tell him their dreams the next morning, and he should decide the 
issue by interpretation. The young princes accordingly washed their 
bodies, changed their garments, and slept. Next day the elder son 
said, " I dreamed that I climbed up a mountain, and, facing the east, 
I cut with the sword and thrust with the spear eight times." The 
younger said, " I climbed the same mountain, and, stretching snares 
of cords on every side, tried to catch the sparrows that destroy the 
grain." The emperor then interpreted the dream, " You, my son," 
said he to the elder, " looked in one direction. You will go to the 
East, and become its governor." " You, my son," said he to the 
younger, " looked in every direction. You will govern on all sides. 
You will become my heir." It happened as the father had said. The 
younger became emperor, and a peaceful ruler. The elder became the 
governor of, and a warrior in, the East. 

The story is interesting as illustrating the method of succession to 
the throne. Usuallv it was by primogeniture, but often it depended 



SWIN, THE CIVILIZES. 65 

upon the will or whim of the father, the councils of his chiefs, or the 
intrigues of courtiers. 

The energies of this pious mikado were further exerted in devising 
and executing a national military system, whereby his peaceably dis- 
posed subjects could be protected and the extremities of his domin- 
ions extended. The eastern and northern frontiers were exposed to 
the assaults of the wild tribes of Amos who were yet unsubdued. 
Between the peaceful agricultural inhabitants who owned the sway of 
the ruler in Yamato, and the untamed savages who gloried in their 
freedom, a continual border-war existed. The military division of the 
empire into four departments was made, and a shogun, or general, was 
appointed over each. These departments were the To, Nan, and Sai 
kai do, and Hokurokudo, or the East, South, and West-sea Circuits, 
and the Northern-land Circuit. The strict division of the empire into 
do, or circuits, according with the natural features and partitions of 
the country, which is still recognized, was of later time ; but already, 
b.c. 25, it seems to have been foreshadowed by Sujin. 

One of these shoguns, or generals, named Obiko, who was assigned 
to the Northern Department, lying north of Yamato and along the 
west coast, holds a high place of renown among the long list of 
famous Japanese warriors. It is said that when, just after he had 
started to join his command, he heard of a conspiracy against the 
mikado, returning quickly, he killed the traitor, restored order, and 
then resumed his duties in the camp at the North. His son held com- 
mand in the East. In the following reign, it is written that military 
arsenals and magazines were established, so that weapons and rations 
were ready at any moment for a military expedition to repel incursions 
from the wild tribes on the border, or to suppress insurrections within 
the pale of the empire. The half -subdued inhabitants in the extremes 
of the realm needed constant watching, and seem to have been as 
restless and treacherous as the Indians on our own frontiers. The 
whole history of the extension and development of the mikado's em- 
pire is one of war and blood, rivaling, if not exceeding, that of our 
own country in its early struggles with the Indians. This constant 
military action and life in the camp resulted, in the course of time, in 
the creation of a powerful and numerous military class, who made war 
professional and hereditary. It developed that military genius and 
character which so distinguish the modern Japanese, and mark them 
in such strong contrast with other nations of Eastern Asia. The long- 
sustained military operations also served to consolidate the empire. 



66 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

In these ancient days, however, there was no regular army, no special 
class of warriors, as in later times. Until the eighth century, the 
armies were extemporized from the farmers and people generally, as 
occasion demanded. The war over, they returned to their daily em- 
ployments. The mikados were military chiefs, and led their armies, 
or gave to their sons or near relatives only, the charge of expeditions. 
It is not my purpose to follow in detail the long series of battles, 




Imperial or Japanese Government Seal for Public Business. The Chrysanthemum. 

or even court conspiracies and intrigues, which fill the Japanese his* 
tories, and lead some readers to suppose that war was the normal con- 
dition of the palace and empire. I prefer to show the condition 
of the people, their methods of life, customs, ideas, and beliefs. Al- 
though wars without and intrigues within were frequent, these by no 
means made up the life of the nation. Peace had its victories, no 
less renowned than those of war. A study of the life of the people, 
showing their progress from barbarism to civilization, will, I think, be 
of more interest to the reader than details concerning imperial rebels, 
poisoners, or stabbers. 

In the Japanese histories, and in official language, literature, and eti- 
quette of later days, there exists the conception of two great spheres 
of activity and of two kinds of transactions, requiring two methods of 



SUJW, THE GIVILIZER. 67 

treatment. They are the nai and guai, the inner and the outer, the in- 
terior and exterior of the palace, or the throne and the empire. Thus 
the Nihon Guai Shi y by Rai Sanyo, or " External History of Japan," 
treats of the events, chiefly military, outside the palace. His other 
work, Nihon Seiki, treats rather of the affairs of the " forbidden in- 
terior " of the palace. In those early days this conception had not 
been elaborated. 




Imperial Crest, or the Mikado's Seal, for Private or Palace Business. Leaf and Blossoms 
of the Paulownia imperialis (kiri.) 

The mikado from ancient times has had two crests, answering to 
the coats of arms in European heraldry. One is a representation of a 
chrysanthemum (kiku), and is used for government purposes outside 
the palace. It is embroidered on flags and banners, and printed on 
official documents. Since the Restoration, in 1868, the soldiers of the 
imperial army wear it as a frontlet on their caps. The other crest, 
representing a blossom and leaves of the Paulownia imperialis (kiri), 
is used in business personal to the mikado and his family. The an- 
cient golden chrysanthemum has, since 1868, burst into new bloom, 
like the flowering of the nation itself, and has everywhere displaced 
the trefoil of the parvenus of later feudalism — the Tokugawas, the 
only military vassals of the mikado who ever assumed the preposter 
ous title of " Tycoon." 



68 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



VII. 

YAMATO-DAKE, THE CONQUEROR OF THE KUANTO* 

A new hero appears in the second century, whose personality seems 
so marked that it is impossible to doubt that within the shell of fabu- 
lous narration is a rich kernel of history. This hero, a son of the 
twelfth emperor, Keiko (71-130 a.d.), is pictured as of fair mien, manly 
and graceful carriage. In his youth he led an army to put down a re- 
bellion in Kiushiu ; and, wishing to enter the enemy's camp, he dis- 
guised himself as a dancing-girl, and presented himself before the sen- 
tinel, who, dazed by the beauty and voluptuous figure of the supposed 
damsel, and hoping for a rich reward from his chief, admitted her to 
the arch -rebel's tent. After dancing before him and his carousing 
guests, the delighted voluptuary drew his prize by the hand into his 
own tent. Instead of a yielding girl, he found more than his match in 
the heroic youth, who seized him, held him powerless, and took his 
life. For this valorous effort he received the name Yamato-Dake, or, 
the Warlike. Thirteen years after this victory, a.d. 110, the tribes in 
eastern Japan revolted, and Yamato-Dake went to subdue them. He 
stopped at the shrine of the Sun-goddess in Ise, and, leaving his own 
sword under a pine-tree, he obtained from the priestess the sacred 
sword, one of the holy emblems enshrined by Sujin. Armed with 
this palladium, he penetrated into the wilds of Suruga, to fight the 
Ainos, who fled before him from the plains into the woods and mount- 
ain fastnesses. The Aino method of warfare, like that of our North 
American Indians, was to avoid an encounter in the open field, and to 

* Kuanto (east of the barrier). The term Kuanto was, probably as early as the 
ninth century, applied to that part of Japan lying east of the guard-gate, or bar- 
rier, at Ozaka, a small village on the borders of Tamashiro and Omi. It included 
thirty-three provinces. The remaining thirty-three provinces were called Kuan- 
6ei (west of the barrier). In modern times and at present, the term Kuanto (writ- 
ten also Kanto) is applied to the eight provinces (Kuan-hasshiu) east of the Ha- 
kone" range, consisting of Sagami, Musashi, Kodzuke, Shimotsuke, Kadzusa, Awa, 
Shimosa, and Hitachi. Sometimes Idzu, Kai, and the provinces of Hondo north 
of the thirty-eighth parallel, formerly called Mutsu and Dewa, are also included. 



YAMATO-DAEE, THE CONQUEBOB OF THE EUANTO. 



69 



fight in ambush from behind trees, rocks, or in the rank undergrowth, 
using every artifice by which, as pursued, they could inflict the great- 
est damage upon an enemy with the least loss and danger to them- 
selves. In the lore of the forest they were so well read that they felt 
at home in the most tangled wilds. They were able to take advan- 
tage of every sound and sign. They were accustomed to disguise 
themselves in bear-skins, and thus act as spies and scouts. Fire was 
one of their chief means of attack. On a certain occasion they kin- 




Japan, as known to the Ancient Mikados before the Fifth Centnry. 

died the underbrush, which is still seen so densely covering the un- 
cleared portions of the base of Fuji. The flames, urged by the wind, 
threatened to surround and destroy the Japanese army — a sight which 
the Ainos beheld with yells of delight. The Sun-goddess then ap- 
peared to Yamato-Dake, who, drawing the divinely bestowed sword — 
Murakumo, or "Cloud-cluster" — cut the grass around him. So invin- 
cible was the blade that the flames ceased advancing and turned to- 
ward his enemies, who were consumed, or fled defeated. Yamato-Dake 



70 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

then gratefully acknowledging to the gods the victory vouchsafed to 
him, changed the name of the sword to Kusanagi (Grass-mower). 

Crossing the Hakone Mountains, he descended into the great plain 
of the East, in later days called the Kuanto, which stretches from the 
base of the central ranges and table-land of Hondo to the shores of 
the Pacific, and from Sagami to Iwaki. On reaching the Bay of Yedo 
at about Kamizaki, near Uraga, off which Commodore Perry anchored 
with his steamers in 1853, the hills of the opposite peninsula of Awa 
seemed so very close at hand, that Yamato-Dake supposed it would be 
a trifling matter to cross the intervening channel. He did not know 
what we know so well now, that at these narrows of the bay the 
winds, tides, currents, and weather are most treacherous. Having 
embarked with his host, a terrific storm arose, and the waves tossed 
the boat so helplessly about that death seemed inevitable. Then the 
frightened monarch understood that the Sea-god, insulted by his dis- 
paraging remark, had raised the storm to punish him. The only way 
to appease the wrath of the deity was by the sacrifice of a victim. 
Who would offer? One was ready. In the boat with her lord was 
his wife, Tachibana hime. Bidding him farewell, she leaped into the 
mad waves. The blinding tempest drove on the helpless boat, and 
the victim and the saved were parted. But the sacrifice was accepted. 
Soon the storm ceased, the sky cleared, the lovely landscape unveiled 
in serene repose. Yamato-Dake landed in Kadzusa, and subdued the 
tribes. At the head of the peninsula, at a site still pointed out within 
the limits of modern Tokio, he found the perfumed wooden comb of 
his wife, which had floated ashore. Erecting an altar, he dedicated the 
precious relic as a votive offering to the gods. A Shinto shrine still 
occupies the site where her spirit and that of Yamato-Dake are wor- 
shiped by the fishermen and sailors, whose junks fill the Bay of Yedo 
with animation and picturesque beauty. As usual, a pine-tree stands 
near the shrine. The artist has put Mount Fuji in the distance, a 
beautiful view of which is had from the strand. Yamato-Dake then 
advanced northward, through Shimosa, sailing along the coast in 
boats to the border, as the Japanese claimed it to be, between the 
empire proper and the savages, which lay at or near the thirty-eighth 
parallel. The two greatest chiefs of the Ainos, apprised of his com- 
ing, collected a great army to overwhelm the invader. Seeing his 
fleet approaching, and awed at the sight, they were struck with con- 
sternation, and said, " These ships must be from the gods. If so, and 
we draw bow against them, we shall be destroyed." No sooner had 



YAMATO-DAEJt, THE CONQUEROR OF THE KUANTO. 



71 



Yamato-Dake landed than they came to the strand and surrendered. 
The hero kept the leaders as hostages, and having tranquilized the 
tribes, exacting promise of tribute, he set out on the homeward jour- 
ney. His long absence from the capital in the wilds of the East 
doubtless disposed him to return gladly. He passed through Hitachi 
and Shimosa, resting temporarily at Sakura, then through Musashi 
and Kai. Here he is said to have invented the distich, or thirty-one- 
syllable poem, so much used at the present day. After his army had 
been refreshed by their halt, he sent one of his generals into Echizen 
and Echigo to tranquilize the North-west and meet him in Yamato. 




Junk in the Bay of Yedo, near the Shrine of Tachibana hime. 

He himself marched into Shinano. Hitherto, since crossing the 
Hakone range, he had carried on his operations on the plains. Shi- 
nano is a great table-land averaging twenty-five hundred, and rising 
in many places over five thousand, feet above the sea-level, surrounded 
and intersected by the loftiest peaks and mountain ranges in Japan. 
Ninety-five miles north-west of Tokio is the famous mountain pass of 
Usui Toge, the ascent of which from Sakamoto, on the high plain be- 
low, is a toilsome task. At this point, twenty-six hundred feet above 
Sakamoto, unrolls before the spectator a magnificent view of the Bay 
of Yedo and the plain below, one of the most beautiful and impress- 
ive in Japan. Here Yamato stood and gazed at the land and water. 



72 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE . 

draperied in the azure of distance, and, recalling the memory of his 
beloved wife, who had sacrificed her life for him, he murmured, sadly, 
"Adzuma, adzuma " (My wife, my wife). The plain of Yedo is still, 
in poetry, called Adzuma, One of the princes of the blood uses Ad- 
zuma as his surname ; and the ex-Confederate iron-clad ram Stone- 
wall, now of the Japanese navy, is christened Adzuma-kuan. 

To cross the then almost unknown mountains of Shinano was a 
bold undertaking, which only a chief of stout heart would essay.* 
To travel in the thinly populated mountainous portions of Japan even 
at the present time, at least to one accustomed to the comfort of the 
palace-cars of civilization, is not pleasant. In those days, roads in the 
Kuanto were unknown. The march of an army up the slippery as- 
cents, through rocky defiles, over lava-beds and river torrents, required 
as much nerve and caution as muscle and valor. To their superstitious 
fancies, every mountain was the abode of a god, every cave and defile 
the lurking-place of spirits. Air and water and solid earth were pop- 
ulous with the creatures of their imagination. Every calamity was 
the manifestation of the wrath of the local gods ; every success a proof 
that the good kami were specially favoring them and their leaders. 
The clouds and fogs were the discomfiting snares of evil deities to 
cause them to lose their path. The asphyxiating exhalations from 
volcanoes, or from the earth, which to this day jet out inflammable 
gas, were the poisonous breath of the mountain gods, insulted by the 
daring intrusion into their sacred domain. On one occasion the god 
of the mountain came to Yaniato-Dake, in the form of a white deer, to 
trouble him. Yaniato-Dake, suspecting the animal, threw some wild 
garlic in its eye, causing it to smart so violently that the deer died. 

* The cold in winter in the high mountain regions of Shinano is severe, and 
fires are needed in the depth of summer. Heavy falls of snow in winter make 
traveling tedious and difficult. I went over this part of Tamato-Dake's journey 
in 1873, completing a tour of nine hundred miles. As I have gone on foot over 
the mountain toge's (passes) from Takata, in Echigo, to Tokio, in Musashi, and 
likewise have heen a pedestrian up and over the pass of St. Bernard, I think, all 
things considered, the achievement of Yamato-Dake fully equal in courage, skill, 
daring, patience, and romantic interest to that of Napoleon. The tourist to-day 
who makes the trip over this route is rewarded with the most inspiring views of 
Fuji, Asama yama, Yatsugadake, and other monarchs in this throne-room of nat- 
ure in Japan. In the lowlands of Kodzuke also is the richest silk district in all 
Japan, the golden cocoons, from which is spun silver thread, covering the floors 
of almost every house during two summer months, while the cleft fingers of Jap- 
anese maidens, pretty and otherwise, may be seen busily engaged in unraveling 
the shroud of the worm, illustrating the living proverb, "With time and patience 
even the mulberry-leaf becomes silk." 



YAMATO-DAKE, THE CONQUEROR OF THE KUANTO. 73 

Immediately the mountain was shrouded in mist and fog, and the path 
disappeared. In the terror and dismay, a white dog — a good kami in 
disguise — appeared, and led the way safely to the plains of Mino. 

Again the host were stricken by the spirit of the white deer. All 
the men and animals of the camp were unable to stand, stupefied by 
the mephitic gas discharged among them by the wicked kami. Hap- 
pily, some one bethought him of the wild garlic, ate it, and gave to 
the men and animals, and all recovered. At the present day in Japan, 
partly in commemoration of this incident, but chiefly for the purpose 
of warding off infectious or malarious diseases, garlic is hung up be- 
fore gates and doors in time of epidemic, when an attack of disease is 
apprehended. Thousands of people believe it to be fully as effica- 
cious as a horseshoe against witches, or camphor against contagion. 
Descending to the plains of Mino, and crossing through it, he came 
to Ibuki yama, a mountain shaped like a truncated sugar-loaf, which 
rears its colossal flat head in awful majesty above the clouds. Yama- 
to-Dake attempted to subdue the kami that dwelt on this mountain. 
Leaving his sword, " Grass-mower," at the foot of the mountain, he 
advanced unarmed. The god transformed himself into a serpent, and 
barred his progress. The hero leaped over him. Suddenly the heav- 
ens darkened. Losing the path, Yamato-Dake swooned and fell. On 
drinking of a spring by the way, he was able to lift up his head. 
Henceforward it was called Same no idzumi, or the Fountain of Re- 
covery. Reaching Otsu, in Ise, though still feeble, he found, under 
the pine-tree, the sword which he had taken off before, and forthwith 
composed a poem : " O pine, were you a man, I should give you this 
sword to wear for your fidelity." He had been absent in the Kuanto 
three years. He recounted before the gods his adventures, difficulties, 
and victories, made votive offerings of his weapons and prisoners, and 
gave solemn thanks for the deliverance vouchsafed him. He then re- 
ported his transactions to his father, the mikado, and, being weak and 
nigh to death, he begged to see him. The parent sent a messenger 
to comfort his son. When he arrived, Yamato-Dake was dead. He 
was buried at Nobono, in Ise. From his tomb a white bird flew up ; 
and on opening it, only the chaplet and robes of the dead hero were 
found. Those who followed the bird saw it alight at Koto-hiki hara 
(Plain of the Koto-players) in Yamato, which was henceforth called 
Misazaki Shiratori (Imperial Tomb of the White Bird). His death 
took place a.d. 113, at the age of thirty-six. Many temples in the 
Kuanto and in various parts of Japan are dedicated to him. 



74 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



I have given so full an account of Yamato-Dake to show the style 
and quality of ancient Japanese tradition, and exhibit the state of 
Eastern Japan at that time, and because under the narration there is 
good history of one who extended the real boundaries of the early 
empire.* Yamato-Dake was one of the partly historic and partly ideal 
heroes that are equally the cause and the effect of the Japanese mili- 
tary spirit. It may be that the future historians of Japan may con- 
sider this chapter as literary trash, and put Yamato-Dake and all his 
deeds in the same limbo with Romulus and his wolf-nurse, William 
Tell and his apple ; but I consider him to have been a historical per- 
sonage, and his deeds a part of genuine history. 

* The names of the various provinces of Japan are given below. Each name 
of Japanese origin has likewise a synonym compounded of the Chinese wordsftm 
(province), affixed to the pronunciation of the Chinese character with which the 
first syllable of the native word is written. In some cases the Chinese form is 
most in use, in which case it is italicized. In a few cases both forms are current. 

Go Kinai (Five Home Provinces). Hokurikudo (Continued). 

Yamashiro, or Joshiu. Echigo, " Esshiu. 

Yamato, " Washiu. Sado (island), " Sashiu. 

Knf' »*£&.. Sanindo (Mountain-ba 

Settsu, " Sesshiu. 

Tdkaidd (Eastern-sea Region). 



Iga, o 


• Ishiu. 




Ise, ' 


Seishiu. 




Shima, ' 


Shishiu. 




Owari, " 


Bishiu. 




Mikawa, ' 


Sanshiu. 




Totomi, " 


Enshiu. 




Surnga, " 


Sunshiu. 




Idzu, " 


Dziishiu. 




Kai, 


Koshht. 




Sagami, " 


Soshiu. 




Musashi. ' 


Bushiu. 




Awa, " 


Boshiu. 




Kadzusa, ' 


Soshiu. 




Shimosa, ' 


Soshiu. 




Hitachi, " 


Joshiu. 




Tdzandd (Eastern-mountain Region). 


Omi, 


or Goshiu. 


Mino, 


n 


Noshiu. 


Hida, 


' 


Hishiu. 


Shinano, 


" 


Shinshiu. 


Kddzuke, 


< 


Joshiu. 


Shimotsuke 


§ ' 


Yashiu. 


flwashi 


-v CO 




g Iwashiro, | g 




s J. Rikuzen, } a " 


Ostaiu. 


g Riknchiu, '3 




_ iMichinoku, ] "O 




% /Uzen, 
g (Ugo, 


Q 


Uehia. 


Hokurikudo (Northern-land Region). 


Wakasa, 


or Jakushiu. 


Echizen, 


" Essh 


iu. 


Kaga, 


" Kashiu. 


Noio, 


" Noshiu. 


Etchiu, 


" Essh 


u. 



Tamba, 


or Tanshiu. 


Tango, 


" Tanshiu. 


Tajima, 


" Tanshiu. 


Inaba, 


" Inshiu. 


Hoki, 


" Hakushiu. 


Idzumo, 


" (Inshiu. 


Iwami, 


" Sekishiu. 


Oki (islands). 


Sany 


odd (Mountain -front Region) 


Harima, 


or Banshiu. 


Mimasaka 


, " Saknshiu. 


Bizen, 


" Bishiu. 


Bitchiu, 


" Bishiu. 


Bingo, 


" Bishiu. 


Aki, 


" Geishiu. 


Suwo, 


" Boshiu. 


Nagato, 


" Chdshiu. 


Nankaidd (Southern-sea Region) 


Kii, 


or Kishiu. 


A waji (i si an d) , " Tanshiu. 


Awa, 


" Ashiu. 


Sanuki, 


" Sanshiu. 


Iyo, 


" Yoshiu. 


Tosa, 


" Toshiu. 


Saikaido (Western-sea Region), 


Chikuzen, 


or Chikushiu. 


Chikugo, 


" Chikushiu. 


Buzen, 


" Hdshiu. 


Bungo, 


" Hdshiu. 


Bizen, 


" Hishiu. 


Higo, 


" Hishiu. 


Hiuga, 


" Nisshiu. 


Ozumi, 


" G.'ishin. 


Satsuma, 


" Sasshiu. 




The "Two Islands." 


Tsushima 


or Ta ishiu. 


Iki, 


" Ishiu. 



TEE INTRODUCTION OF CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION. 75 



VIII. 

THE INTRODUCTION OF CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION 

If Japan is to Asia what Great Britain is to Europe — according to 
the comparison so often made by the modern Japanese — then Corea 
was to Dai Nippon what Norman France was to Saxon England. 
Through this peninsula, and not directly from China, flowed the influ- 
ences whose confluence with the elements of Japanese life produced 
the civilization which for twelve centuries has run its course in the 
island empire. The comparison is not perfect, inasmuch as Japan 
sent the conqueror to Corea, whereas Normandy sent William across 
the Channel. In the moral and aesthetic conquest of Rome by Greece, 
though vanquished by Roman arms, we may perhaps find a closer re- 
semblance to the events of the second triad of the Christian centuries 
in the history of Japan. 

Is it true among historic nations that anciently the position of 
woman was higher than in later times ? It has been pointed out by 
more than one writer on Greece " that in the former and ruder period 
women had undoubtedly the higher place, and their type exhibited 
the highest perfection." This is certainly the case in Japan. The 
women of the early centuries were, according to Japanese history, 
possessed of more intellectual and physical vigor, filling the offices of 
state, religion, and household honors, and approaching more nearly 
the ideal cherished in those countries in which the relation of the 
sexes is that of professed or real equality. Certain it is that, whereas 
there are many instances of ancient Japanese women reaching a high 
plane of social dignity and public honor, in later ages the virtuous 
woman dwelt in seclusion ; exemplars of ability were rare ; and the 
courtesan became the most splendid type of womanhood. This must 
be more than the fancy of poets. As in the Greece of Homer and 
the tragedians, so in early Nippon, woman's abilities and possibilities 
far surpassed those that were hers in the later days of luxury and civ- 
ilization. To a woman is awarded the glory of the conquest of Co- 
rea, whence came letters, religion, and civilization to Japan. 



76 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

In all Japanese tradition or history, there is no greater female char- 
acter than the empress Jingu (godlike exploit). Her name was Okina- 
ga Tarashi hime, but she is better known by her posthumous title of 
Jingu Kogo, or Jingu, the wife or spouse of the mikado. She was 
equally renowned for her beauty, piety, intelligence, energy, and mar- 
tial valor. She was not only very obedient to the gods, but they de- 
lighted to honor her by their inspiration. She feared neither the 
waves of the sea, the arrows of the battle-field, nor the difficulties that 
wait on all great enterprises. Great as she was in her own person, 
she is greater in the Japanese eyes as the mother of the god of war. 

In the year 193 a rebellion broke out at Kumaso, in Kiushiu. The 
mikado Chiuai (191-200) headed his army, and marched to subdue 
the rebels. Jingu Kogo, or Jingu, the empress, followed him by ship, 
embarking from Tsuruga, in Echizen — a port a few miles north-west 
of the head of Lake Biwa — meeting her husband at Toyo no ura, near 
the modern Shimonoseki, of indemnity fame. While worshiping on 
one of the islands of the Inland Sea, the god spoke to her, and said, 
" Why are you so deeply concerned to conquer Kumaso ? It is but a 
poor, sparse region, not worth conquering with an army. There is a 
much larger and richer country, as sweet and lovely as the face of a 
fair virgin. It is dazzling bright with gold, silver, and fine colors, and 
every kind of rich treasures is to be found in Shiraki (in Corea). Wor- 
ship me, and I will give you power to conquer the country without 
bloodshed ; and by my help, and the glory of your conquest, Kumaso 
shall be straightway subdued." The emperor, hearing this from his 
wife, which she declared was the message of the gods, doubted, and, 
climbing to the summit of a high mountain, looked over the sea, and 
seeing no land to the westward, answered her : "I looked everywhere 
and saw water, but no land. Is there a country in the sky ? If not, 
you deceived me. My ancestors worshiped all the gods : is there any 
whom they did not worship ?" 

The gods, answering through the inspired empress, made reply : 
" If you believe only your doubts, and say there is no country when 
I have declared there is one, you blaspheme, and you shall not go 
thither ; but the empress, your wife, has conceived, and the child 
within her shall conquer the country." Nevertheless, the emperor 
doubted, and advanced against Kumaso, but was worsted by the rebels. 
While in camp, he took sick and died suddenly. According to an- 
other tradition, he was slain in battle by an arrow. His minister, 
Takenouchi, concealed his death from the soldiers, and carried the 



TEE INTRODUCTION OF CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION. 77 

corpse back to Toyo no ura, in Nagato. The brave Jingu, with the 
aid of Takenouchi, suppressed the rebellion, and then longed for con- 
quest beyond the sea. 

While in Hizen, in order to obtain a sign from the gods she went 
down to the sea-shore, and baited a hook with a grain of boiled rice, 
to catch a fish. " Now," said she, " I shall conquer a rich country if a 
fish be caught with this grain of rice." The bait took. A fish was 
caught, and Jingu exultingly accepted the success of her venture as a 
token of celestial approval of her design. " Medzurashiki mono !" 
(wonderful thing), exclaimed the royal lady. The place of the omen 
is still called Matsura, corrupted from the words she used. In further 
commemoration, the women of that section, every year, in the first 
part of the Fourth month, go fishing, no males being allowed the priv- 
ilege on that day. The pious Jingu prepared to invade Corea; but 
wishing another indication of the will of the kami, she on one occa- 
sion immersed her hair in water, saying that, if the gods approved of 
her enterprise, her tresses would become dry, and be parted into two 
divisions. It was as she desired. Her luxuriant black hair came 
from the water dry, and parted in two. Her mind was now fixed. 
She ordered her generals and captains to collect troops, build ships, 
and be ready to embark. Addressing them, she said: "The safety 
or destruction of our country depends upon this enterprise. I intrust 
the details to you. It will be your fault if they are not carried out. 
I am a woman, and young ; I shall disguise myself as a man, and un- 
dertake this gallant expedition, trusting to the gods, and to my troops 
and captains. We shall acquire a wealthy country. The glory is 
yours, if we succeed ; if we fail, the guilt and disgrace shall be mine." 
Her captains, with unanimity and enthusiasm, promised to support 
her and carry out her plans. The enterprise was a colossal one for 
Japan at that time. Although the recruiting went on in the various 
provinces, and the ships were built, the army formed slowly. Chaf- 
ing at the delay, but not discouraged, again she had recourse to the 
efficacy of worship and an appeal to the gods. Erecting a tabernacle 
of purification, with prayers and lustrations and sacrifices she prayed 
the kami to grant her speedy embarkation and success. The gods 
were propitious. Troops came in. The army soon assembled, and 
all was ready, a.d. 201. 

Before starting, Jingu issued orders to her soldiers, as follows : 

" No loot. 

" Neither despise a few enemies nor fear many. 

6 



78 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

" Give mercy to those who yield, but no quarter to the stubborn. 

" Rewards shall be apportioned to the victors ; punishments shall be 
meted to the deserters." 

Then the words of the gods came, saying, " The Spirit of Peace will 
always guide you and protect your life. The Spirit of War will go 
before you and lead your ships." 

Jingu again returned thanks for these fresh exhibitions of divine 
favor, and made her final preparations to start, when a new impedi- 
ment threatened to delay hopelessly the expedition, or to rob it of its 
soul and leader, the Amazonian chief. She discovered that she was 
pregnant. Again the good favor of the gods enabled her to triumph 
over the obstacles which nature, or the fate of her sex, might throw in 
the path of her towering ambition. She found a stone which, being 
placed in her girdle, delayed her accouchement until her return from 
Corea. 

It does not seem to have been perfectly clear in the minds of those 
ancient filibusters where Corea was, or for what particular point of the 
horizon they were to steer. They had no chart or compass. The 
sun, stars, and the flight of birds were their guides. In a storm they 
would be helpless. One fisherman had been sent to sail westward 
and report. He came back declaring there was no land to be seen. 
Another man was dispatched, and returned, having seen the mount- 
ains on the main-land. The fleet sailed in the Tenth month. Winds, 
waves, and currents were all favorable. The gods watched over the 
fleet, and sent shoals of huge fishes to urge on the waves that by their 
impact lifted the sterns and made the prows leap as though alive. 
The ships beached safely in Southern Corea, the Japanese army land- 
ed in the glory of sunlight and the grandeur of war in splendid array. 
The king of this part of Corea had heard from his messengers of the 
coming of a strange fleet from the East, and, terrified, exclaimed, " We 
never knew there was any country outside of us. Have our gods for- 
saken us ?" The invaders had no fighting to do as they expected. It 
was a bloodless invasion. The Coreans came, holding white flags, and 
surrendered, offering to give up their treasures. They took an oath 
that they would be tributary to Japan, that they would never cause 
their conquerors to dispatch another expedition, and that they would 
send hostages to Japan. The rivers might flow backward, or the peb- 
bles in their beds leap up to the stars, yet would they not break their 
oath. Jingu set up weapons before the gate of the king in token of 
peace. By his order eighty ships well laden with gold and silver, ar- 



THE INTRODUCTION OF CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION 79 

tides of wealth, silk and precious goods of all kinds, and eighty hos- 
tages, men of high families, were put on board. 

The stay of the Japanese army in Corea was very brief, and the 
troops returned in the Twelfth month. Jingu was, on her arrival, de- 
livered of a son, who, in the popular estimation of gods and mortals, 
holds even a higher place of honor than his mother, who is believed 
to have conquered Southern Corea through the power of her yet un- 
born illustrious offspring. After leaving her couch, the queen-regent 
erected in Nagato (Choshiu) a shrine, and in it dedicated the Spirit of 
War that had guided her army. She then attended to the funeral 
rites of her deceased husband, and returned to the capital. 

The conquest of Corea, more correctly a naval raid into one of the 
southern provinces, took place a.d. 203. The motive which induced 
the invasion seems to have been the same as that carried out by Hide- 
yoshi in 1583, and contemplated in 1873 — mere love of war and con- 
quest. The Japanese refer with great pride to this their initial ex- 
ploit on foreign soil. It was the first time they had ever gone in 
ships to a foreign country to fight. For the first time it gave them 
the opportunity of displaying their valor in making " the arms of Ja- 
pan shine beyond the seas " — a pet phrase which occurs in many docu- 
ments in Japan, even in this 2536th year of the Japanese empire, and 
of our Lord 1876. Nevertheless, the honor of the exploit is given to 
the unborn son on whom dwelt the Spirit of War, rather than to the 
mother who bore him. 

The queen-mother is worshiped in many temples as Kashii dai mid 
jin. The son, Ojin, afterward a great warrior, was, at his death, 313 
a.d., deified as the god of war ; and down through the centuries he 
has been worshiped by all classes of people, especially by soldiers, who 
offer their prayers, pay their vows, and raise their votive offerings to 
him. Many of the troops, before taking steamer for Formosa, in 1874, 
implored his protection. In his honor some of the most magnificent 
temples in Japan have been erected, and almost every town and vil- 
lage, as well as many a rural grove and hill, has its shrine erected to 
this Japanese Mars. He is usually represented in his images as of 
frightful, scowling countenance, holding, with arms akimbo, a broad 
two-edged sword. One of the favorite subjects of Japanese artists of 
all periods is the group of figures consisting of the snowy-bearded 
Takenouchi, in civil dress, holding the infant of Jingu Kogo in his 
arms, the mother standing by in martial robes. Jingu is the heroine 
and model for boys, not of the girls. In the collection of pictures, 



80 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

images, and dolls which in Japanese households on the 5th of May, 
every year, teach to the children the names and deeds of the national 
heroes, and instill the lessons taught by their example, this warrior- 
woman is placed among the male, and not among the female, groups. 

Mne empresses in all have sat upon the throne of Japan as rulers, 
four of whom reigned at the capital, Nara. None have won such mar- 
tial renown as Jingu. It is not probable, however, that military enter- 
prise will ever again give the nation another ideal woman like the 
conqueror of Corea. It is now, in modern days, given to the Empress 
of Japan to elevate the condition of her female subjects by graciously 
encouraging the education of the girls, and setting a noble example, 
not only of womanly character and of active deeds of benevolence, 
but also in discarding the foolish and barbarous customs of past ages, 
notably that of blacking the teeth and shaving off the eyebrows. This 
the present empress, Haruko, has done. Already this chief lady of the 
empire has accomplished great reforms in social customs and fashions, 
and, both by the encouragement of her presence and by gifts from her 
private purse, has greatly stimulated the cause of the education and the 
elevation of woman in Japan. Haply, it may come to pass that this 
lady in peaceful life may do more for the good and glory of the em- 
pire than even the renowned queen-regent, Jingu Kogo. 

The early centuries of the Christian era, from the third to the 
eighth, mark that period in Japanese history during which the future 
development and character of the nation were mightily influenced by 
the introduction, from the continent of Asia, of the most potent fac- 
tors in any civilization. They were letters, religion, philosophy, liter- 
ature, laws, ethics, medicine, science, and art. . Heretofore the first un- 
foldings of the Japanese intellect in the composition of sacred hymns, 
odes, poems, myths, and tradition had no prop upon which to train, 
and no shield against oblivion but the unassisted memory. The Jap- 
anese were now to have records. Heretofore religion was simply the 
rude offspring of human imagination, fear, and aspiration, without 
doctrinal systems, moral codes, elaborate temples, or sacerdotal caste. 
Henceforth the Japanese were to be led, guided, and developed in 
morals, intellect, and worship by a religion that had already brought 
the nations of Asia under its sway — a strong, overpowering, and ag- 
gressive faith, that was destined to add Japan to its conquests. Bud- 
dhism, bringing new and greater sanctions, penalties, motives, and a 
positive theology and code of morals, was to develop and broaden the 
whole nature of the individual man, and to lead the entire nation 




Her Imperial Japanese Majesty, the Empress of Japan, Harnko, nee Ichijo Haruko. 
(From a photograph taken at Tokio, 1S74.) 



THE INTRODUCTION OF CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION. S3 

forward. Chinese philosophy and Confucian morals were to form 
the basis of the education and culture of the Japanese statesman, 
scholar, and noble, to modify Shinto, and with it to create new 
ideals of government, of codes, laws, personal honor, and household 
ordering. Under their influence, and that of circumstances, have 
been shaped the unique ideals of the samurai; and by it a healthy 
skepticism, amidst dense superstition, has been maintained. The com- 
ing of many immigrants brought new blood, ideas, opinions, methods, 
improvements in labor, husbandry, social organization. Japan received 
from China, through Corea, what she is now receiving from America 
and Europe — a new civilization. 

For nearly a century after the birth of Ojin, the record of events is 
blank. In 249 a.d. a Japanese general, Arata, was sent to assist one 
state of Corea against another. Occasional notices of tribute-bearers 
arriving from Corea occur. In 283 a number of tailors, in 284 excel- 
lent horses, were sent over to Japan. In 285, "Wani, a Corean schol- 
ar, came over to Japan, and, residing some time at the court, gave 
the mikado's son instruction in writing. If the Niliongi — the author- 
ity for the date of Wani's arrival in Japan — could be trusted in 
its chronology, the introduction of Chinese writing, and probably 
of Buddhism, would date from this time; but the probabilities are 
against positive certainty on this point. If it be true, it shows that 
the first missionary conquest of this nation was the work of four cent- 
uries, instead of as many decades. Wani died in Japan, and his 
toml] stands near Ozaka. In a.d. 403 a court annalist was chosen. 
Envoys and tribute-bearers came, and presents were exchanged. In 
462 mulberry-trees were planted — evidently brought, together with 
the silk-worm, for whose sustenance they were intended — from China 
or Corea. Again, tailors in 4V 1, and architects in 493, and learned 
men in 512, arrived. An envoy from China came in 522. The ar- 
rival of fresh immigrants and presents from Corea in 543 is noted. 
In 551, during a famine in Corea, several thousand bushels of barley 
were dispatched thither by Japan. In 552, a company of doctors, 
diviners, astronomers, and mathematicians from Corea came to live at 
the Japanese court. With them came Buddhist missionaries. This 
may be called the introduction of continental civilization. Begin- 
ning with Jingu, there seems to have poured into the island empire a 
stream of immigrants, skilled artisans, scholars, and teachers, bringing 
arts, sciences, letters and written literature, and the Buddhist religion. 
This was the first of three great waves of foreign civilization in Japan. 



84 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The first was from China, through Corea in the sixth ; the second 
from Western Europe, in the fifteenth century ; the third was from 
America, Europe, and the world, in the decade following the advent of 
Commodore Perry. These innovations were destined to leaven might- 
ily the whole Japanese nation as a lump. Of these none was so pow- 
erful and far-reaching in effects as that in the sixth century, and no one 
element as Buddhism. This mighty force was destined to exert a re- 
sistless and unifying influence on the whole people. Nothing, among 
all the elements that make up Japanese civilization, has been so potent 
in forming the Japanese character as the religion of Buddha. That 
the work of these new civilizers may be fully appreciated, let us 
glance at life in Dai Nippon before their appearance.* 

* The Empress Jingu, after her return, made a very important change in the 
divisions of the empire. Seimu Tenno (a.d. 131-190) had divided the empire into 
provinces, the number of which was thirty-two in all, the land above the thirty- 
eighth parallel being still unknown, and inhabited by the wild tribes of Ainos. 
Jingu, imitating the Corean arrangement, divided the empire into five home 
provinces, and seven do, or circuits, naming them in relation to their direction 
from the capital. These are analogous to our "Eastern," "Middle," "South- 
ern," "Western," "Trans-Mississippi," and "Pacific-coast" divisions of States. 
The "five home provinces" (Go Kinai) are Yamashiro, Yamato, Kawachi, Idzu- 
mi, and Settsu. The Tokaido, or Eastern-sea Circuit, comprised the provinces 
skirting the Pacific Ocean from Iga to Hitachi, including Kai. 

The Tozando, or Eastern-mountain Circuit, included those provinces from Omi 
to the end of the main island, not on the Sea of Japan, nor included within the 
Tokaido. 

The Hokurokudo, or Northern -land Circuit, comprised the provinces from 
Wakasa to Echigo inclusive, bordering on the Sea of Japan, and Sado Island. 

The Sanindo, or Mountain -back Circuit, comprised with the Old group of 
islands the provinces from Tamba to Iwami, bordering on the Sea of Japan. 

The Sanyodo, or Mountain-front Circuit, comprised the provinces from Hari- 
ma to Nagato (or Choshiu) bordering the Inland Sea. 

The Nankaido, or Southern-sea Circuit, comprises the province of Kii, the four 
provinces of Iyo, Sanuki, Awa, and Tosa, in Shikoku (shi, four; koku, province), 
and the Island of Awaji. 

The Saikaido, or Western -sea Circuit, comprises nine provinces of Kiushiu 
(Jciu, nine; shiu, province). 

The "two islands" are Iki and Tsushima. 

This division accords with the physical features of the country, and has ever 
since been retained, with slight modifications as to provinces. It is very proba- 
ble that in the time of Jingu, the Japanese did not know that Hondo was an 
island. A foreigner looking at the map of the empire, or a globe representing 
the world, could hardly imagine that the Japanese have no special and universal- 
ly used name for the main island. Yet such is the fact, that neither they nor 
their books popularly apply any particular name to the main island. It may be 
even doubted whether the people in general ever think of the main island as be- 
ing a particular division requiring a name, as the foreigner conceives it, and thus 



THE INTRODUCTION OF CONTINENTAL CIVILIZATION. 85 

feels a name to be a necessity. This necessity has given rise to the error of ap- 
plying the term " Niphon " (Ninon, Nippon, or Nifon), first done by Kaempfer. 
The Japanese had no more necessity to apply a special name to the main island 
than the early American colonists had to give a name to the region beyond the 
Mississippi. Even now we have no name in general use for that now well-known 
part of our country. To foreigners, the absence of a name for the largest island 
seems an anomaly. In the Japanese mind it never existed. He rarely spoke 
even of Kiushiu or Shikoku as names of islands, always using the names of the 
do, or circuits, just as an American speaks of the New England or the Eastern 
States. In modern times, native scholars who have, from their study, compari- 
sons, and foreign methods of thought, felt the need of a distinctive name, have 
used Hondo (main continent or division), Honjima (main island), or Honjiu 
(main country). Of these, Hondo seems to be the best ; and as it is used in the 
official geography recently issued by the War Department, I have made use of 
it. Nippon is not, nor ever was, the name of the main island, as Kaempfer first 
asserted, Nippon, or Dai Nippon, is the name of the whole empire. The word 
is Chinese, and must have been applied in very ancient times, as the Nihongi con- 
tains the three characters with which the name is written. The very name of the 
book, Nippongi, or, more elegantly, Nihongi, shows that the use of the term Nip- 
pon antedates the eighth century. Tenchi Tenno, in a.d. 670, first officially de- 
clared Nippon to be the name of Japan. It has been asserted that the use of Dai 
(Great) before Nippon is quite recent, and that the motive of the modern natives 
of Japan in thus designating their empire is "from a desire to imitate what they 
mistake for the pride or vainglory of Great Britain, not knowing that the term 
Great was used there to distinguish it from a smaller French province of the 
same name." To this remarkable statement it is sufficient to answer, that one 
of the most ancient names of Japan is O Tamato, the word 6 meaning great, and 
the Japanese equivalent of the Chinese word tai or dai. When Chinese writing 
was introduced, the Japanese, in seeking an equivalent for O Yamato, found it in 
Dai Nippon, as may be seen in the Nihongi. The Chinese have always been in 
the habit of prefixing dai or tai to w r hatever relates to their country, govern- 
ment, or any thing which they in their pride consider very superior. Anciently 
they called China Dai To, and they now call it Dai Tsin (or Dai Chin), Great 
China. The Japanese have done the same analogous thing for at least twelve, 
probably for fifteen, centuries. That the use of Dai (Great) before Nippon is not 
the fashion of the present century is proved by the fact that the Japanese ency- 
clopedia San Sai Dzu Ye, finished in 1712, contains the name with the pronuncia- 
tion as now used, and that it is found in the very name Dai Nihon Shi, a book 
completed in 1715. The use of Nippon (or Niphon, or Nipon), applied to the 
main island, is altogether unwarrantable and confusing. The Japanese have 
very properly protested against this improper naming of their chief island, and, 
notwithstanding the long use of the name in Europe and America, I believe it 
should be expunged. The Japanese have some geographical rights which we are 
bound to respect. 

Map of Japan. — The best map of Japan is that by Mr. R. Henry Brunton, C.E., 
F.R.G.S., late Engineer-in-chief of the Light-house Department of the Japanese 
Government. It is five feet by four, and drawn to a scale of twenty miles to the 
inch. It is well engraved, and gives also rules of pronunciation, explanation of 
terms, Japanese lineal measures, railways, highways, by-roads, telegraph lines, 
light-houses, depths of water along the coast, steamer routes, lists of principal 
mountains, rivers, islands, promontories, lakes, open ports, classes of population, 
provinces, fu, ken, and a comparative scale of English miles and Japanese ri. 



86 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



IX. 

LIFE IN ANCIENT JAPAN. 

The comparatively profound peace from the era of Sujin Tenno to 
the introduction of Chinese civilization was occasionally interrupted 
by insurrections in the southern and western parts of the empire, or 
by the incursions of the unsubdued aborigines in the North and East. 

During these centuries there continued that welding of races — the 
Aino, Malay, Nigrito, Corean, and Yamato — into one ethnic compos- 
ite — the Japanese — and the development of the national temperament, 
molded by nature, circumstances, and original bent, which have pro- 
duced the unique Japanese character. Although, in later centuries, 
Japan borrowed largely from China, blood, language, religion, letters, 
education, laws, politics, science, art, and the accumulated treasures of 
Chinese civilization, her children are to-day, as they have ever been, a 
people distinct from the Chinese, ethnologically, physically, and morally. 

Though frequent fighting was necessary, and many of the aborigi- 
nes were slaughtered, the great mass of them were tranquilized. To 
rude men, in a state of savagery whose existence is mainly animal, it 
matters little who are their masters, so long as they are not treated 
with intolerable cruelty. The aborigines attached to the land roamed 
over it to hunt, or remained upon it to till it, and, along the water- 
courses and sea-coast, to fish. With a soil that repaid generously the 
rude agriculture of that day, an ample food-supply in the sea, without 
severe labor, or exorbitant tribute to pay, the conquered tribes, when 
once quieted, lived in happiness, content, and peace. The govern- 
ment of them was the easiest possible. The invaders from the very 
beginning practiced that system of concubinage which is practical 
polygamy, and filled their harems with the most attractive of the 
young native females. The daughter of the former chief shared the 
couch of the conqueror, and the peasant became the wife of the sol- 
dier, securing that admixture of races that the merest tyro in ethnol- 
ogy notices in modern Japan. In certain portions, as in the extreme 
north of Hondo, the Aino type of face and head, and the general 
physical characteristics of skin, hair, eyes, and form, have suffered the 



LIFE IN ANCIENT JAPAN 87 

least modification, owing to later conquest and less mixture of foreign 
blood. In Southern and Central Japan, where the fusion of the races 
was more perfect, the oval face, oblique eyes, aquiline nose, prominent 
features, and light skin prevail. Yet even here are found compara- 
tively pure specimens of the Malay and even Nigrito races, besides the 
Aino and Corean types. The clod-hopper, with his flat, round face, up- 
turned nose, expanded at the roots and wide and sunken at the bridge, 
nostrils round, and gaping like the muzzle of a proboscidian, bears in 
his veins the nearly pure blood of his aboriginal ancestors. Intellectu- 
ally and physically, he is the developed and improved Aino — the re- 
sultant of the action upon the original stock of the soil, food, climate, 
and agricultural life, prolonged for more than twenty centuries. 

In the imperial family, and among the kuge, or court-nobles, are to 
be oftener found the nearest approach to the ideal Japanese of high 
birth. Yet even among these, who claim twenty -five centuries of 
semi-divine succession, and notably among the daimios, or territorial 
nobles — the parvenus of feudalism — the grossly sensual cast, the ani- 
mal features, the beastly expression, the low type, the plebeian face 
of some peasant ancestor re-appear to plague the descendant, and to 
imbitter his cup of power and luxury. This phenomenon is made 
abundant capital of by the native fiction - writers, caricaturists, and 
dramatists. The diversity of the two types is shown, especially by 
the artists, in strongly marked contrast. In the pictures illustrative 
of legendary or historic lore, and notably on the Japanese fans, now 
so fashionably common among us, the noble hero, the chivalrous 
knight, or the doughty warrior, is delineated with oblique eyes, high 
eyebrows, rounded nose, oval face, and smooth skin ; while the peas- 
ant, boor, vanquished ruffian, or general scape-goat, is invariably a man 
of round, flat face, upturned and depressed nose, gaping nostrils, hori- 
zontal eyes, and low eyebrows. In painting the faces of actors, sing- 
ing-girls, and those public characters who, though the popular idols, 
are of low birth and blood, the fan-artist exaggerates the marks cf 
beauty to the delight of his native, and to the disgust of his foreign, 
patrons. What depreciates the value of his wares in the eyes of the 
latter enhances it in those of the natives. 

All savages worship heroes, and look upon their conquerors, who 
have been able apparently to overcome not only themselves, but even 
the gods in whom they trusted, if not as gods themselves, at least as 
imjued with divine power. The Ainos of Yezo to this day adore the 
warrior Yoshitsune. Their fathers doubtless considered Jimmu and 



88 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

his followers as gods or men divinely assisted. The conquerors were 
not slow in cultivating such a belief for their own benefit, and thus 
what was once the fancy of savages became the dogma of religion 
and the tool of the magistrate. The reverence and obedience of the 
people were still further secured by making the government pure- 
ly theocratic, and its general procedure and ceremonial identical with 
those of worship. The forms of local authority among the once 
independent tribes were but little interfered with, and the govern- 
ment exercised over them consisted at first chiefly in the exaction 
of tribute. The floating legends, local traditions, and religious ideas 
of the aborigines, gathered up, amplified by the dominant race, trans- 
formed and made coherent by the dogmatics of a theocracy, became 
the basis of Shinto, upon which a modified Chinese cosmogony and 
abstract philosophical ideas were afterward grafted. It was this back- 
ground that has made the resultant form of Shinto different from 
what is most probably its prototype, the ante-Confucian Chinese re- 
ligion. In its origin, Shinto is from the main -land of Asia. In 
growth and development it is " a genuine product of Japanese soil." 
As yet, before the advent of Buddhism and Chinese philosophy, 
there were no moral codes, no systems of abstract doctrines, no 
priestly caste. These were all later developments. There were then 
no colossal temples with their great belfries and immense bells whose 
notes quivered the air into leagues of liquid melody ; no sacred court- 
yards decked with palm-trees ; no costly shrines decked out in the 
gaudy magnificence characteristic of Buddhism, or impure Shinto. 
No extensive monasteries, from which floated on the breeze the chant- 
ing of priests or the droning hum of students, were then built. No 
crimson pagodas peeped out from camphor groves, or cordons of fire- 
warding firs and keyaki-trees. No splendid vestments, gorgeous ritual, 
waves of incense, blazing lights, antiphonal responses, were seen or 
heard in the thatched huts which served as shrines of the kami. No 
idols decked the altars. No wayside images dotted the mountain or 
the meadow paths. No huge portals (torii) of stone or red-lacquered 
timber stood fronting or opening the path to holy edifices. 

On the hill-top, or river-side, or forest grove, the people assembled 
when invocations were offered and thanksgiving rendered to the gods. 
Confession of sin was made, and the wrath of the kami, therefore, was 
deprecated. The priest, after fasting and lustrations, purified himself 
and, robed in white, made offerings of the fruits of the earth or the 
trophies of the net and the chase. 



LIFE IN ANCIENT JAPAN 



89 



At the court, a shrine of the Sun-goddess had been set up and sac- 
rifices offered. Gradually in the towns and villages similar shrines 
were, erected, and temples built ; but for long centuries among the 
mountains, along the rivers and sea-coasts, the child of the soil set up 
his fetich, made the water-worn stone, the gnarled tree, or the storm- 
cloud his god. Wherever evil was supposed to lurk, or malignity re- 
side, there were the emblems of the Aino religion. On precipice, in 
gorge, in that primeval landscape, stood the plume of curled shavings 
to ward off the evil influences. In agony of terror in presence of the 




Shinto Wayside Shrine in Modern Japai 



awful phenomenon of nature, earthquake, typhoon, flood, or tidal wave, 
the savage could but supplicate deified Nature to cease from wrath 
and tumult, and restore her face in peace of sunshine and calm. 

The houses of the ancient Japanese were oblong huts, made by 
placing poles of young trees, with the bark on, upright in the ground, 
with transverse poles to make the frame, and fastened together with 
ropes made of rushes or vines. The walls were of matted grass, 
boughs, or rushes, the rafters of bamboo, and the sloping roof of 
grass-thatch, fastened down by heavy ridge-poles. The two larger 
rafters at each end projected and crossed each other, like two bayonets 



90 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

in a stack of guns. Across the ridge-pole, and beneath it and anoth- 
er heavy tree laid lengthwise on top of the thatch, projected at right 
angles on either side short, heavy logs, which by their weight, and 
from being firmly bound by withes running under the ridge-pole, 
kept the thatch firmly in its place. This primeval hut is the model 
of the architecture of a pure Shinto temple. A short study of one 
easily reveals the fact. The floor, of hardened earth, had the fire in 
the centre ; the doors and windows were holes covered at times with 
mats — in short, the Aino hut of to-day. The modern Japanese dwell- 
ing is simply an improvement upon that ancient model. 

The clothing of that period consisted of skins of animals, coarsely 
woven stuff of straw, grass, bark, palm-fibre, and in some cases of 
asbestos. Silk and cotton fabrics were of later invention and use. 
It is evident, even from modern proof, as exhibited in the normal 
Japanese of to-day, that the wearing of many garments was not con- 
genial to the ancient people. As for straw and grass, these materials 
are even now universally used in town and country for hats, rain-coats, 
leggings, sandals, and a great variety of wearing apparel. A long 
loose garment, with the breech, or loin-cloth, and girdle, leggings, and 
sandals of straAv, comprised a suit of ancient Japanese clothing. The 
food of the people consisted chiefly of fish, roots, and the flesh of ani- 
mals. They ate venison, bear-meat, and other flesh, with untroubled 
consciences, until Buddhism came with its injunctions. The conquer- 
ors evidently brought cereals with them, and taught their cultivation ; 
but the main reliance of the masses was upon the spoils of the rivers 
and sea. Even now the great centres and lines of the population are 
rivers and the sea-coast. Roots, sea-weed, and edible wild vegetables 
were, as at present, an important portion of native diet. 

The landscape of modern Japan is one of minute prettiness. It is 
one continued succession of mountains and valleys. The irregularities 
of the surface render it picturesque, and the labors of centuries have 
brought almost every inch of the cultivable soil in the populous dis- 
tricts into a state of high agricultural finish. The peasant of to-day 
is in many cases the direct descendant of the man who first plunged 
mattock and hoe into the rooty soil, and led the water from a distance 
of miles to his new-made fields. The gullies, gorges, and valleys are 
everywhere terraced for the growth of rice. Millions of irrigated 
fields without fences or live-stock, bounded by water-courses, and ani- 
mate with unharmed and harmless wild -fowl, the snowy heron, and 
the crane, and whose fertility astonishes the stranger, and the elaborate 



LIFE IN ANCIENT JAPAN. 



91 




system of reservoirs, ditches, and flumes, are the harvest of twenty 
centuries of toil. The face of nature 
has been smoothed ; the unkempt lux- 
uriance of forest and undergrowth has 
been sobered; the courses of rivers 
have been bridled ; the once inaccess- 
ible sides of mountains graded, and 
their summits crossed by the paths 
of the traveler or pilgrim. The earth 
has been honey-combed by miners in 
quest of its metallic wealth. 

In the primeval landscape of Japan 
there were no meadows, hedges, cat- 
tle, horses, prairies of ripening rice, 
irrigated fields, and terraced gulches. 
Then also, as now, the landscape was 
nude of domestic animal life. Instead 
of castled cities, fortified hills, gar- 
dens, and hedges, were only thatched 
villages, or semi-subterranean huts. 
No water - courses had been altered, 
timber. The plethora of nature was unpruned; the scrub bamboo, 
wild flowers, or grass covered the hills. The great plains of the 
East and North were luxuriant moors, covered with grass, reeds, or 
bamboo, populous with wild animal life. No laden junks moved up 
the rivers. The mulberry and tea plantations had not yet been set 
out. The conquerors found a virgin soil and a land of enrapturing 
beauty. They brought with them, doubtless, a knowledge of agricul- 
ture and metals. Gradually the face of nature changed. The hunter 
became a farmer. The women learned to spin and weave cotton and 
hemp. Division of labor began. The artisan and merchant appear- 
ed. Arts, sciences, skilled agriculture, changed the face of the land. 
Society emerged from its savage state, and civilization began. 

As yet there was no writing. All communications were oral, all 
teachings handed down from father to son. Memory was the only 
treasury of thought. There is, indeed, shown in Japan at the present 
day a so-called ancient Japanese alphabet — the kami, or god, letters 
— which it is asserted the ancient Japanese used. This assertion is 
voided of truth by the testimony of the best native scholars to the 
contrary. No books or ancient inscriptions exist in this character. I 



The Peasant of To-day. (Carrying Home 
the Sheaves of Rice.) Hokusai. 

There were no roads, no dikes, 
no slopes or hills denuded of 



92 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

have myself sought in vain, in the grave-yards of Kioto and other an- 
cient places, to discover any of these characters upon the old tombs. 
The best authorities, scholars who have investigated the subject, pro- 
nounce the so-called god-letters a forgery, that reveals their artificial 
and modern character upon a slight examination. They consist al- 
most entirely of a system of straight lines and circles, which has, doubt- 
less, either been borrowed from Corea, or invented by some person in 
modern times. Yet the morning of literature had dawned before 
writing was known. Poems, odes to the gods, prayers, fragments of 
the Shinto liturgy, which still exist in the Kojihi and Nihongi, had 
been composed. From these fragments we may presume that a much 
larger unwritten literature existed, which was enjoyed by the men who, 
in those early days, by thought and reflection, attained to a certain de- 
gree of culture above their fellows. The early sovereigns worshiped 
the gods in person, and prayed that their people might enjoy a suf- 
ficiency of food, clothing, and shelter from the elements ; and twice 
a year, in the Sixth and Twelfth months, the people assembled at 
the river-side, and, by washings and prayer, celebrated the festival of 
General Purification, by which the whole nation was purged of of- 
fenses and pollutions. This was the most characteristic of Shinto 
festivals, and the liturgy used in celebrating it is still in vogue at the 
present day. Time was measured by the phases of the moon, and 
the summer and winter solstices. The division of months and years 
was in use. The ancient laws and punishments were exceedingly se- 
vere. Besides the wager of battle to decide a quarrel, the ordeal still 
in use among the Ainos was then availed of. The persons involved 
immersed their hands in boiling water. He whose hand was scald- 
ed most was the guilty one. The wholly innocent escaped without 
scath, or was so slightly injured that his hand rapidly healed. 

Japanese art had its birth in mercy, about the time of Christ's ad- 
vent on earth. A custom long adhered to among the noble classes 
was the burial of the living with the dead (jun-shi, dying with the 
master). The wife, and one or more servants, of the deceased lord 
committed suicide, and were inhumed with him. The mikado Suinin, 
son of Sujin, attempted (b.c. 2) to abolish the cruel rite by imperial 
edict. Yet the old fashion was not immediately abandoned. In a.d. 
3, the empress died. Nomi no Tsukune, a courtier, having made 
some clay images, succeeded in having these substituted for the living 
victims. This was the birth of Japanese art. Henceforth these first 
products of man's unfolding genius stood vicarious for the breathing 



LIFE m ANCIENT JAPAN. 



93 



For this reform, the originator was given the 
Haji (ha, clay; shi, ji, teacher = clay - image 



beings they simulated, 
honorable designation, 
teacher, or artist). 

The domestic life and morals of those days deserve notice. There 
were no family names. The institution of marriage, if such it may be 
called, was upon the same basis as that among the modern Ainos 
or North American Indians. Polygamy was common. Marriage be- 
tween those whom we consider brothers and sisters was frequent, and 
a thing not to be condemned. Children of the same fathers by dif- 
ferent mothers were not considered fraternally related to each other, 
and hence could marry ; but marriage between a brother and sister 
born of the same mother was prohibited as immoral. 

The annexed illustration is taken from a native work, and represents 
a chief or nobleman in ancient 
Japan. It will be noticed that 
beards and mustaches were 
worn in those days. The art- 
ist has depicted his subject 
with a well -wrinkled face to 
make him appear venerable, 
and with protruding cheeks to 
show his lusty physique, recall- 
ing the ideals of Chinese art, 
in which the men are always 
portly and massive, while the 
women are invariably frail and 
slender. His pose, expression, 
folded arms, and dress of fig- 
ured material (consisting of one 
long loose robe with flowing 
sleeves, and a second garment, 
like very wide trousers, girded 
at the waist with straps of the 
same material) are all to be 
seen, though in modified forms, 

in modern Japan. The fash- A Court Noble in Ancient Japan. (From a Na« 
ions of twenty centuries have tive Drawin &> 

changed but slightly. Suspended from his girdle may be seen the 
magatama chatelaine, evidently symbolizing his rank. The magatama 
are perforated and polished pieces of soap-stone or cornelian, of various 
colors, shaped something like a curved seed-pod. They were strur-2 

7 




9i THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

together like beads. Other ornaments of this age were the kudatama, 
jewels of gold, silver, or iron. The ancient sword was a straight, 
double-edged blade, about three feet long. 

Buddhists and Confucianists assert that there existed no words in 
their language for benevolence, justice, propriety, sagacity, and truth. 
Doubtless these virtues existed, though not as necessary principles, to 
be taught, formulated, and incorporated into daily life. Chastity and 
restraint among the unmarried were not reckoned as necessary virtues ; 
and the most ancient Japanese literature, to say nothing of their 
mythology, proves that marriage was a flimsy bar against the excursions 
of irregular passion. Great feasts and drinking-bouts, in which ex- 
cessive eating was practiced, were common. They were fond of the 
chase, and hunting-parties were frequent from the most ancient times. 
Among the commendable features of their life were the habit of daily 
bathing and other methods of cleanliness. They treated their wom- 
en with comparative kindness and respect. They loved the beautiful 
in Nature, and seemed to have been ever susceptible to her charms. 
In brief, they had neither the virtues nor vices of high civilization. 

The arts were in the rudest state. Painting, carving, and sculpture 
were scarcely known. No theatre existed. Sacred dancing with masks, 
at the holy festivals, was practiced as part of the public worship, with 
music from both wind and stringed instruments. 

Until the seventh century of our era, when the Chinese centralized 
system was adopted, the government of the Japanese empire was a 
species, of feudalism. The invaders, on conquering the land, divided 
it into fiefs that were held sometimes by direct followers of Jimmu, 
or by the original Aino chiefs, or nobles of mixed blood, on their 
rendition of homage or tribute to the conqueror. The frequent de- 
fection of these native or semi-Japanese chiefs was the cause of the 
numerous rebellions, the accounts of which enter so largely into the 
history of the first centuries of the empire. The mikado himself 
ruled over what is now called the Kinai, or Five Home Provinces, a 
space of country included between Lake Biwa and the bays of Ozaka 
and Owari. The provinces in Shikokii, Kiushiu, and the circuits 
west, north, and east, were ruled by tributary chiefs who paid homage 
to the mikado as their suzerain, but most probably allowed him to 
interfere to a slight extent in the details of the administration of 
their lands. In cases of dispute between them, the mikado doubtless 
acted as umpire, his geographical position, superior power, and the 
sacredness of person insuring his supremacy at all times, even in the 
height of turbulence and riot so often prevailing. 



LIFE IN ANCIENT JAPAN 95 

In the ancient mikadoate, called by the Japanese the Osei era, or 
the government of monarchs, there were several features tending to 
increase the power of the suzerain, or central chief. The first was the 
essentially theocratic form of the government. The sovereign was 
the centre of that superstitious awe, as well as of loyalty and personal 
reverence, which still exists. There grew into being that prestige, 
that sense of hedging divinity and super-mortal supremacy of the 
mikado that still forms the most striking trait of the Japanese char- 
acter, and the mightiest political, as it is a great religious and moral, 
force in Japan, overshadowing even the tremendous power of Bud- 
dhism, which is, as Shinto is not, armed with the terrors of eternity. 
In both a theological and political sense, in him dwelt the fullness of 
the gods bodily. He was their hypostasis. He was not only their 
chosen servant, but was himself a god, and the vicegerent of all the 
gods. His celestial fathers had created the very ground on which 
they dwelt. His wrath could destroy, his favor appease, celestial an- 
ger, and bring them fortune and prosperity. He was their preserver 
and benefactor. In his custody were the three sacred symbols. It 
was by superior intellect and the dogmatism of religion, as well as 
with superior valor, weapons, and skill, that a handful of invaders con- 
quered and kept a land populated by millions of savages. 

To the eye of a foreigner and a native of Japan, this imperfect pict- 
ure of primitive Japan which I have given appears in very different 
lights. The native who looks at this far-off morning of Great Japan, 
the Holy Country, sees his ancestors only through the atmosphere in 
which he has lived and breathed. The dim religious light of reverent 
teaching of mother, nurse, father, or book falls on every object to re- 
veal beauty and conceal defects. The rose-tints which innocent child- 
hood casts upon every object here makes all things lovely. Heaven 
lies about his country's infancy. The precepts of his religion make 
the story sacred, and forbid the prying eye and the sandaled foot. 
The native loves, with passionate devotion, the land that nursed his 
holy ancestors, and thrills at the oft-told story of their prowess and 
their holy lives. He makes them his model of conduct. 

The foreigner, in cold blood and with critical eye, patiently seeks 
the truth beneath, and, regarding not the dogma which claims to rest 
upon it, looks through dry light. To the one Nippon is the Land of 
the Gods, and the primal ages were holy. To the other, Japan is 
merely a geographical division of the earth, and its beginnings were 
from barbarism. 



96 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



X. 

THE ANCIENT RELIGION 

The ancient religion of the Japanese is called Kami no michi (way 
or doctrine of the gods ; i. e., theology). The Chinese form of the 
same is Shinto. Foreigners call it Shintoism, or Sintooism. Almost 
all the foreign writers* who have professed to treat of Shinto have 
described only the impure form which has resulted from the contact 
with it of Buddhism and Chinese philosophy, and as known to them 
since the sixteenth century. My purpose in this chapter is to give a 
mere outline of ancient Shinto in its purity. A sketch of its tradi- 
tional and doctrinal basis has been given. Only a very few Shinto 
temples, called miya, have preserved the ancient purity of the rites 
and dogmas during the overshadowing influences of Buddhism. 

In Japanese mythology the universe is Japan, the legends relating 
to Japan exclusively. All the deities, with perhaps a few exceptions, 
are historical personages ; and the conclusion of the whole matter of 
cosmogony and celestial genealogy is that the mikado is the descend- 
ant and representative of the gods who created the heavens and earth 
(Japan). Hence, the imperative duty of all Japanese is to obey him. 
Its principles, as summed up by the Department of Religion, and pro- 
mulgated throughout the empire so late as 1872, are expressed in the 
following commandments : 

1. " Thou shalt honor the Gods, and love thy country. 

2. "Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven and 
the duty of man. 

3. " Thou shalt revere the Mikado as thy sovereign, and obey the 
will of his court." 



* By far the best writing on Shinto, based on profound researches, is the long 
article of Mr. Ernest Satow, entitled "The Revival of Pure Shinto," in the Japan 
Mail, 1874, and contained in the "Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Japan" 
for the same year. Also on "The Shinto Temples of Ise," by the same writer. 
A scholarly article, by Mr. P. Kemperman, secretary to the German legation in 
Japan, was published in the Japan Mail of August 26th, 1874. 



THE ANCIENT RELIGION 97 

The chief characteristic, which is preserved in various manifesta- 
tions, is the worship of ancestors, and the deification of emperors, he- 
roes, and scholars. The adoration of the personified forces of nature 
enters largely into it. It employs no idols, images, or effigies in its 
worship. Its symbols are the mirror and the gohei — strips of notched 
white paper depending from a wand of wood. It teaches no doctrine 
of the immortality of the soul, though it is easy to see that such a 
dogma may be developed from it, since all men (Japanese) are de- 
scended from the immortal gods. The native derivation of the term 
for man is hito (" light- bearer ") ; and the ancient title of the mi- 
kado's heir-apparent was " light-inheritor." Fire and light (sun) have 
from earliest ages been the objects of veneration. 

Shinto has no moral code, no accurately defined system of ethics 
or belief. The leading principle of its adherents is imitation of the 
illustrious deeds of their ancestors, and they are to prove themselves 
worthy of their descent by the purity of their lives. A number of 
salient points in their mythology are recognized as maxims for their 
guidance. It expresses great detestation of all forms of uncleanness, 
and is remarkable for the fullness of its ceremonies for bodily purifi- 
cation. Birth and death are especially polluting. Anciently, the 
corpse and the lying-in woman were assigned to buildings set apart, 
which were afterward burned. The priest must bathe and don clean 
garments before officiating, and bind a slip of paper over his mouth, 
lest his breath should pollute the offerings. Many special festivals 
were observed for purification, the ground dedicated for the purpose 
being first sprinkled with salt. The house and ground were defiled 
by death, and those who attended a funeral must also free themselves 
from contamination by the use of salt. The ancient emperors and 
priests in the provinces performed the actual ablution of the people, 
or made public lustrations. Later on, twice a year, at the festivals of 
purification, paper figures representing the people were thrown into 
the river, allegorical of the cleansing of the nation from the sins of 
the past six months. Still later, the mikado deputized the chief min- 
ister of religion at Kioto to perform the symbolical act for the peo- 
ple of the whole country. 

After death, the members of a family in which death had occurred 
must exclude themselves from all intercourse with the world, attend 
no religious services, and, if in official position, do no work for a 
specified number of days. 

Thanksgiving, supplication, penance, and praise are all represented 



98 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

in the prayers to the gods, which are offered by both sexes. The em- 
peror and nobles often met in the temple gardens to compose hymns 
or sacred poems to the gods. Usually in prayer the hands are clap- 
ped twice, the head or the knees bowed, and the petition made in 
silence. The worshiper does not enter the temple, but stands before 
it, and first pulls a rope dangling down over a double gong, like a 
huge sleigh-bell, with which he calls the attention of the deity. The 
kami are believed to hear the prayer when as yet but in thought, be- 
fore it rises to the lips. Not being intended for human ears, elo- 
quence is not needed. The mikado in his palace daily offers up peti- 
tions for all his people, which are more effectual than those of his sub- 
jects. Washing the hands and rinsing out the mouth, the worshiper 
repeats prayers, of which the following is an example : " O God, that 
dwellest in the high plain of heaven, who art divine in substance and 
in intellect, and able to give protection from guilt and its penalties, 
to banish impurity, and to cleanse us from uncleanness — hosts of 
gods, give ear and listen to these our petitions." Or this : " I say with 
awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwitting faults which, seen 
and heard by you, I have committed; by blowing off and clearing 
away the calamities which evil gods might inflict ; by causing me to 
live long, like the hard and lasting rock ; and by repeating to the 
gods of heavenly origin, and to the gods of earthly origin, the peti- 
tions which I present every day, along with your breath, that they 
may hear with the sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt." 

The offerings, most commonly laid with great ceremony by the 
priest, in white robes, before the gods, were fruit and vegetables in 
season, fish and venison, kt night they were removed, and became 
the property of the priest. Game and fowls were offered up as an 
act of worship, but with the peculiarity that their lives were not sacri- 
ficed. They were hung up by the legs before the temple for some 
time, and then permitted to escape, and, being regarded as sacred to 
the gods, were exempt from harm. The new rice and the products 
furnished by the silk-worm and the cotton-plant were also dedicated. 

Before each temple stood a torii, or bird-rest. This was made of 
two upright tree-trunks. On the top of these rested a smoother tree, 
with ends slightly projecting, and underneath this a smaller horizontal 
beam. On this perched the fowls offered up to the gods, not as food, 
but as chanticleers to give notice of day-break. In later centuries the 
meaning of the torii was forgotten, and it was supposed to be a gate- 
way. The Buddhists attached tablets to its cross-beam, painted or 



THE ANCIENT RELIGION. 99 

coppered its posts, curved its top-piece, made it of stone or bronze, 
and otherwise altered its character. Resembling two crosses with 
their ends joined, the torii is a conspicuous object in the landscape, 
and a purely original work of Japanese architecture. 

All the miyas were characterized by rigid simplicity, constructed 
of pure wood, and thatched. No paint, lacquer, gilding, or any mer- 
etricious ornaments were ever allowed to adorn or defile the sacred 
structure, and the use of metal was avoided. Within, only the gohei 
and the daily offerings were visible. Within a closet of purest wood 
is a case of wood containing the "august spirit-substitute," or "gods'- 
seed," in which the deity enshrined in the particular temple is be 
lieved to reside. This spirit-substitute is usually a mirror, which in 
some temples is exposed to view. The principal Shinto temples are 
at Ise, in which the mirror given by Amaterasu to Ninigi, and brought 
down from heaven, was enshrined. Some native writers assert that 
the mirror was the goddess herself; others, that it merely represented 
her. All others in Japan are imitations or copies of this original. 

The priests of Shinto are designated according to their rank. They 
are called kannuski (shrine-keepers). Sometimes they receive titles 
from the emperor, and the higher ranks of the priesthood are court 
nobles. They are, in the strictest sense of the word, Government offi- 
cials. The office of chief minister of religion was hereditary in the 
Nakatomi family. Ordinarily they dress like other people, but are 
robed in white when officiating, or in court - dress when at court. 
They marry, rear families, and do not shave their heads. The office 
is usually hereditary. Virgin priestesses also minister at the shrines. 

After all the research of foreign scholars who have examined the 
claims of Shinto on the soil, and by the aid of the language, and the 
sacred books and commentators, many hesitate to decide whether 
Shinto is " a genuine product of Japanese soil," or whether it is not 
closely allied with the ancient religion of China, which existed before 
the period of Confucius. The weight of opinion inclines to the latter 
belief. Certain it is that many of the Japanese myths are almost ex- 
actly like those of China, while many parts of the cosmogony can be 
found unaltered in older Chinese works. The KojiJci (the Bible of 
the Japanese believers in Shinto) is full of narrations; but it lays 
down no precepts, teaches no morals or doctrines, prescribes no ritual. 
Shinto has very few of the characteristics of a religion, as understood 
by us. The most learned native commentators and exponents of Shin- 
to expressly maintain the view, that Shinto has no moral code. Mo- 



100 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

toori, the great modern revivalist of Shinto, teaches, with polemic em- 
phasis, that morals were invented by the Chinese because they were 
an immoral people ; but in Japan there was no necessity for any sys- 
tem of morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his 
own heart. The duty of a good Japanese consists in obeying the 
commands of the mikado without questioning whether these com- 
mands are right or wrong. It was only immoral people, like the 
Chinese, who presumed to discuss the character of their sovereigns. 
Among the ancient Japanese, government and religion were the same.* 

* In this chapter, I have carefully endeavored to exclude mere opinions and 
conjectures, and to give the facts only. I append below the views held by gen- 
tlemen of cosmopolitan culture, and earnest students of Shinto on the soil, whose 
researches and candor entitle them to be heard. 

" Shinto, as expounded by Motoori, is nothing else than an engine for reducing 
the people to a condition of mental slavery." — Ernest Satow, English, the foi-e- 
most living Japanese scholar, and a special student of Shinto. 

" There is good evidence that Shinto resembles very closely the ancient religion 
of the Chinese." "A distinction should be drawn between the Shinto of ancient 
times and the doctrine as developed by writers at the court of the mikado in 
modern times." " The sword and dragon, the thyrsus staff and ivy, the staff of 
iEsculapius and snakes, most probably had the same significance as the Japanese 
gohei; and, as Sieboldhas remarked, it symbolized the union of the two elements, 
male and female. The history of the creation of the world, as given by the Japa- 
nese, bore the closest resemblance to the myths of China and India; while little 
doubt existed that these (symbol and myth) were imported from the West, the 
difficulty being to fix the date. Little was known of Shinto that might give it 
the character of a religion as understood by Western nations." — J. A. Von Brandt, 
German, late minister of the German empire to Japan, and now to Peking, a student of 
Japanese archaeology, and founder of the German Asiatic Society of Japan. 

"Japanese, in general, are at a loss to describe what Shinto is; but this cir- 
cumstance is intelligible if what was once an indigenous faith had been turned, 
in later days, into a political engine." " Infallibility on the part of the head of 
the state, which was naturally attributed to rulers claiming divine descent, was 
a convenient doctrine for political purposes in China or Japan, as elsewhere." 
"We must look to early times for the meaning of Shinto." " Its origin is close- 
ly allied to the early religion of the Chinese." "The practice of putting up 
sticks with shavings or paper attached, in order to attract the attention of the 
spirits, is observable among certain hill tribes of India, as well as among the Ainos 
of Yezo. The Hindoos, Burmese, and Chinese have converted these sticks into 
flags, or streamers." "If Shinto had ever worked great results, or had taken 
deep hold on the Japanese people, it would scarcely have been superseded so 
completely as it had been by Buddhism." — Sir Harry S. Parkes, British minister 
plenipotentiary in Japan, a fine scholar, and long resident in both China and Japan. 

" The leading idea of Shinto is a reverential feeling toward the dead." "As to 
the political use of it, the state is quite right in turning it to account in support 
of the absolute government which exists in Japan." " The early records of Ja- 
pan are by no means reliable." — Arinori Mori, Japa?iese, formerly charge d'af- 
faires of Japan at Washington, U. S. A., now Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in Japan. 



THE THRONE AND THE NOBLE FAMILIES. 101 



XL 

THE THRONE AND THE NOBLE FAMILIES. 

From the beginning of the Japanese empire, until the century aft- 
er the introduction of Buddhism, the mikados were the real rulers of 
their people, having no hedge of division between them and their 
subjects. The palace was not secluded from the outer world. No 
screen hid the face of the monarch from the gaze of his subjects. 
No bureauocracy rose, like a wall of division, between ruler and ruled. 
No hedge or net of officialdom hindered free passage of remonstrance 
or petition. The mikado, active in word and deed, was a real ruler, 
leading his armies, directing his Government. Those early days of 
comparative national poverty when the mikado was the warrior-chief 
of a conquering tribe ; and, later, when he ruled a little kingdom in 
Central Japan, holding the distant portions of his quasi -empire in 
tribute ; and, still later, when he was the head of an undivided em- 
pire — mark the era of his personal importance and energy. Then, in 
the mikado dwelt a manly soul, and a strong mind in a strong body. 
This era was the golden age of the imperial power. He was the true 
executive of the nation, initiating and carrying out the enterprises of 
peace or war. As yet, no military class had arisen to make themselves 
the arbiters of the throne ; as yet, that throne was under no proprie- 
torship ; as yet, there was but one capital and centre of authority. 

Gradually, however, there arose families of nobility who shared and 
dictated the power, and developed the two official castes of civilian 
and military officials, widening the distance between the sovereign and 
his subjects, and rendering him more and more inaccessible to his 
people. Then followed in succession the decay of his power, the cre- 
ation of a dual system of government, with two capitals and centres 
of authority ; the domination of the military classes ; the centuries of 
anarchy ; the progress of feudalism ; the rending of the empire into 
hundreds of petty provinces, baronies, and feudal tenures. Within 
the time of European knowledge of Japan, true national unity has 
scarcely been known. The political system has been ever in a state 



102 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



of unstable equilibrium, and the nation but a conglomeration of units, 
in which the forces of repulsion ever threatened to overcome the forces 
of cohesion. Two rulers in two capitals gave to foreigners the im- 
pression that there were two " emperors " in Japan — an idea that has 
been incorporated into most of the text -books and cyclopedias of 
Christendom. Let it be clearly understood, however, that there never 
was but one emperor in Japan, the mikado, who is and always was 




The Mikado on bis Throne. Time, from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century. 

the only sovereign, though his measure of power has been very dif- 
ferent at various times. Until the rise and domination of the milita- 
ry classes, he was in fact, as well as by law, supreme. How the mi- 
kado's actual power ebbed away shall form the subject of this and the 
following chapter. 

From the death of Nintoku Tenno, the last of the long-li^ed mika- 
dos, to Kimmei (540-571), in whose time continental civilization was 
introduced, a period of one hundred and forty-one years, fourteen em- 
perors ruled, averaging a little over ten years each. From Kimmei 



THE THRONE AND THE NOBLES. 103 

to Gotoba (a.d. 1198) fifty-three emperors reigned, averaging eleven 
years each. (See list of emperors, p. 123.) 

In a.d. 603, the first attempt to create orders of nobility for the 
nobles, already numerously existing, was made by the Empress Suiko. 
Twelve orders were instituted, with symbolic names, after the Chinese 
custom — such as Virtue, Humanity, Propriety, etc. — distinguished 
by the colors of the caps worn. In 649, this system was changed for 
that having nine ranks, with two divisions. In each of the last six 
were two subdivisions, thus in reality making thirty grades. The first 
grade was a posthumous reward, given only to those who in life had 
held the second. Every officer, from the prime minister to the offi- 
cial clerks, had a rank attached to his office, which was independent 
of birth or age. All officers were presented, and all questions of pre- 
cedence were settled, in accordance with this rank. 

The court officials, at first, had been very few, as might be imagined 
in this simple state of society without writing. The Jin Gi Kuan, 
which had existed from very ancient times, supervised the ceremonies 
of religion, the positions being chiefly held by members of the Naka- 
tomi family. This was the highest division of the Government. In 
a.d. 603, with the introduction of orders of nobility, the form of gov- 
ernment was changed from simple feudalism to centralized monarchy, 
with eight ministries, or departments of state, as follows : 

1. Nakatsukasa no Sho (Department of the Imperial Palace). 

2. Shiki bu Sho (Department of Civil Office and Education). 

3. Ji bu Sho (Department of Etiquette and Ceremonies). 

4. Mini bu Sho (Department of Revenue and Census). 

5. Hid bu Sho (Department of War). 

6. Gio bu Sho (Department of Justice). 

7. kura Sho (Department of Treasury). 

8. Ku nai Sho (Department of Imperial Household). 

The Jin Gi Kuan (Council of Religion ; literally, Council of the Gods 
of Heaven and Earth), though anciently outranking the Dai Jo Kuan 
(Great Government Council), lost its prestige after the introduction 
of Buddhism. The Dai Jo Kuan, created a.d. 786, superintended the 
eight boards and ruled the empire by means of local governors ap- 
pointed from the capital. In it were four ministers : 

1. Dai Jo Dai Jin (Great Minister of the Great Government). 

2. Sa Dai Jin (Great Minister of the Left). 

3. TJ Dai Jin (Great Minister of the Right). 

4. Nai Dai Jin (Inner Great Minister). 



104 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Of the eight departments, that of War ultimately became the most 
important. A special department was necessary to attend to the pub- 
lic manners and forms of society, etiquette being more than morals, 
and equal to literary education. The foreign relations of the empire 
were then of so little importance that they were assigned to a bureau 
of the above department. The treasury consisted of imperial store- 
houses and granaries, as money was not then in general use. Rice 
was the standard of value, and all taxes were paid in this grain. 

The introduction of these orders of nobility and departments of 
state from China brought about the change from the species of feu- 
dalism hitherto existing to centralized monarchy, the rise of the noble 
families, and the fixing of official castes composed, not, as in most 
ancient countries, of the priestly and warrior classes, but, as in China, 
of the civilian and military. 

The seeds of the mediaeval and modern complex feudalism, which 
lasted until 1872, were planted about this time. A division of all 
the able-bodied males into three classes was now made, one of which 
was to consist of regular soldiers permanently in service. This was 
the " military class," from which the legions kept as garrisons in the 
remote provinces were recruited. The unit of combination was the 
go, consisting of five men. Two go formed a kua, five kua a tai, 
two tai a rid, ten rid el dan. These terms may be translated " file," 
" squad," " company," " battalion," " regiment." The dan, or regi- 
ment, could also be regularly divided into four detachments. The 
generals who commanded the army in the field were in many cases 
civil officials, who were more or less conversant with the rude military 
science of the day. In their time, success in war depended more on 
disciplined numbers and personal valor, and was not so much a prob- 
lem of weight, mathematics, machinery, and money as in our day. 
The expeditions were led by a shogun, or general, who, if he com- 
manded three regiments, was called a tai -shogun, or generalissimo. 
The vice-commanders were called fuku-shogun. Thus it will be seen 
that the term " shogun " is merely the Japanese word for " general." 
All generals were shoguns, and even the effete figure-head of the great 
usurpation at Yedo, with whom Commodore Perry and those who fol- 
lowed him made treaties, supposing him to be the " secular emperor," 
was nothing more. 

Muster-rolls were kept of the number of men in the two remaining 
classes that could be sent in the field on an emergency ; and whenever 
an insurrection broke out, and a military expedition was determined 



THE THRONE AND THE NOBLES. 105 

upon, orders were sent to the provinces along the line of march to be 
ready to obey the imperial command, and compare the quota required 
with the local muster-rolls. An army would thus be quickly assem- 
bled at the capital, or, starting thence, could be re-enforced on the 
route to the rebellious province. All that was necessary were the or- 
ders of the emperor. When war was over, the army was dissolved, 
and the army corps, regiments, and companies were mustered out of 
service into their units of combination, go of five men. The general, 
doffing helmet, made his votive offering to the gods, and returned to 
garrison duty. 

Until about the twelfth century, the Japanese empire, like the old 
Roman, was a centre of civilization surrounded by barbarism, or, rath- 
er, like a wave advancing ever farther northward. The numerous re- 
volts in Kiushiu, Shikoku, and even in the North and East of Hondo, 
show that the subjugation of these provinces was by no means com- 
plete on their first pacification. The Kuanto needed continual mili- 
tary care, as well as civil government; while the northern provinces 
were in a chronic state of riot and disorder, being now peaceful and 
loyally obedient, and anon in rebellion against the mikado. To keep 
the remote provinces in order, to defend their boundaries, and to col- 
lect tribute, military occupation became a necessity ; and, accordingly, 
in each of the distant provinces, especially those next to the frontier, 
beyond which were the still unconquered savages, an army was per- 
manently encamped. This, in the remote provinces, was the perma- 
nent military force. Throughout the country was a reserve militia, 
or latent army ; and in the capital was the regular army, consisting 
of the generals and " the Six Guards," or household troops, who form- 
ed the regular garrison of Kioto in peace, and in war became the nu- 
cleus of the army of chastisement. 

This system worked well at first, but time showed its defects, and 
wherein it could be improved. Among that third of the population 
classed as soldiers, some naturally proved themselves brave, apt, and 
skillful ; others were worthless in war, while in the remaining two- 
thirds many who were able and willing could not enter the army. 
About the end of the eighth century a reform was instituted, and a 
new division of the people made. The court decided that all those 
among the rich peasants who had capacity, and were skilled in arch- 
ery and horsemanship, should compose the military class, and that the 
remainder, the weak and feeble, should continue to till the soil and 
apply themselves to agriculture. The above was one of the most sig- 



106 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



nificant of all the changes in the history of Japan. Its fruits are seen 
to-day in the social constitution of the Japanese people. Though 
there are many classes, there are but two great divisions of the Japa- 
nese, the military and the agricultural. It wrought the complete sev- 
erance of the soldier and the farmer. It lifted up one part of the peo- 
ple to a plane of life on which travel, adventure, the profession and 
the pursuit of arms, letters, and the cultivation of honor and chivalry 

were possible, and by which 
that brightest type of the 
Japanese man, the samurai, 
was produced. This is the 
class which for centuries has 
monopolized arms, polite learn- 
ing, patriotism, and intellect 
of Japan. They are the men 
whose minds have been ever 
open to learn, from whom 
sprung the ideas that once 
made, and which later over- 
threw, the feudal system,which 
wrought the mighty reforms 
that swept away the shogunate 
in 1868, restored the mikado 
to ancient power, who intro- 
duced those ideas that now 
rule Japan, and sent their sons 
abroad to study the civilization 
A Samurai, in Winter Traveling-dress. of the West# " T the samurai 

Japan looks to-day for safety in war, and progress in peace. The 
samurai is the soul of the nation. In other lands the priestly and the 
military castes were formed. In Japan one and the same class held 
the sword and the pen — liberal learning and secular culture. The 
other class — the agricultural — remained unchanged. Left to the soil 
to till it, to live and die upon it, the Japanese farmer has remained 
the same to-day as he was then. Like the wheat that for successive 
ages is planted as wheat, sprouts, beards, and fills as wheat, the peas- 
ant, with his horizon bounded by his rice-fields, his water-courses, or 
the timbered hills, his intellect laid away for safe -keeping in the 
priests' hands, is the son of the soil ; caring little who rules him, un- 
less he is taxed beyond the power of flesh and blood to bear, or an 




THE THRONE AND THE NOBLES. 107 







A. Japanese Farmer. (Seed-beds of rice protected from the birds by striugs and slips of 

wood.)* 

overmeddlesome officialdom touches his land to transfer, sell, or re- 
divide it : then he rises as a rebel. In time of war, he is a disinter- 
ested and a passive spectator, and he does not fight. He changes 
masters with apparent unconcern. Amidst all the ferment of ideas 
induced by the contact of Western civilization with Asiatic within the 
last two decades, the farmer stolidly remains conservative : he knows 
not, nor cares to hear, of it, and hates it because of the heavier taxes 
it imposes upon him. 

* In the above sketch by Hokusai, the farmer, well advanced in life, bent and 
bald, is looking dubiously over a piece of newly tilled land, perhaps just reclaim- 
ed, which he defends from the birds by the device of strings holding strips of 
thin wood and bamboo stretched from a pole. With his ever-present bath-towel 
and headkerchief on his shoulders, his pipe held behind him, he stands in medi- 
tative attitude, in his old rice-straw sandals, run down and out at the heels, his 
well-worn cotton coat, darned crosswise for durability and economy, wondering 
whether he will see a full crop before he dies, or whether he can pay his taxes, 
and fill his children's mouths with rice. The writing at side is a proverb which 
has two meanings: it may be read, "A new field gives a small crop," or "Hu- 
man life is but fifty years." In either case, it has pregnant significance to the 
farmer. The pathos and humor are irresistible to one who knows the life of 
these sons of toil. 



108 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

To support the military, a certain portion of rice was set apart per- 
manently as revenue, and given as wages to the soldiers. This is the 
origin of the pensions still enjoyed by the samurai, and the burden of 
the Government and people, which in 1876, after repeated reductions, 
amounts to nearly $18,000,000. 

Let us notice how the noble families originated. To this hour 
these same families, numbering one hundred and fifty -five in all, 
dwell in Tokio or Kioto, intensely proud of their high descent from 
the mikados and the heavenly gods, glorying in their pedigree more 
than the autochthons of Greece gloried in their native soil. The ex- 
istence of this feeling of superiority to all mankind among some of 
the highest officials under the present mikado's government has been 
the cause of bitter quarrels, leading almost to civil war. Under the 
altered circumstances of the national life since 1868, the officials of 
ancient lineage, either unable to conceal, or desirous of manifesting 
their pride of birth, have on various occasions stung to rage the ris- 
ing young men who have reached power by sheer force of merit. 
Between these self-made men, whose minds have been expanded by 
contact with the outer world, and the high nobles nursed in the at- 
mosphere of immemorial antiquity, and claiming descent from the 
gods, an estrangement that at times seems irreconcilable has grown. 
As the chasm between the forms and spirit of the past and the pres- 
ent widens, as the modern claims jostle the ancient traditions, as vig- 
orous parvenuism challenges effete antiquity, the difficulty of harmo- 
nizing these tendencies becomes apparent, adding another to the cat- 
alogue of problems awaiting solution in Japan. I have heard even 
high officers under the Government make the complaint I have indi- 
cated against their superiors; but I doubt not that native patience 
and patriotism will heal the wound, though the body politic must 
suffer long. 

The kuge, or court nobles, sprung from mikados. From the first, 
polygamy was common among both aborigines and conquerors. The 
emperor had his harem of many beauties who shared his couch. In 
very ancient times, as early as Jimmu, it was the custom to choose 
one woman, called kogo, who was wife or empress in the sense of re- 
ceiving special honor, and of having her offspring most likely to suc- 
ceed to the throne. In addition to the wife, the mikado had twelve 
concubines, whose offspring might fill the throne in case of failure of 
issue by the wife. To guard still further against desinence, four fam- 
ilies of imperial descent were afterward set apart, from which an heir 



THE THRONE AND THE NOBLES. 109 

to the throne or a husband of the mikado's daughter might be sought. 
In either case the chosen one became mikado. Only those sons, 
brothers, or grandsons of the sovereign, to whom the title was spe- 
cially granted by patent, were called princes of the blood. There 
were five grades of these. Surnames were anciently unknown in Ja- 
pan ; individuals only having distinguishing appellatives. In 415, 
families were first distinguished by special names, usually after those 
of places. Younger sons of mikados took surnames and founded ca- 
det families. The most famous in the Japanese peerage are given 
below. By long custom it came to pass that each particular family 
held the monopoly of some one high office as its prerogative. The 
Nakatomi family was formerly charged with the ceremonies of Shinto, 
and religious offices became hereditary in that family. The Fujiwara 
(Wistaria meadow) family is the most illustrious in all Japan. It was 
founded by Kamatari, who was regent of the empire (a.d. 645-649), 
who was said to have been descended from Ame no ko yane no 
mikoto, the servant of the grandfather of Jimmu. The influence of 
this family on the destinies of Japan, and the prominent part it has 
played in history, will be fully seen. At present ninety-five of the 
one hundred and fifty-five families of kuge are of Fujiwara name and 
descent. The office of Kuambaku, or Regent, the highest to which a 
subject could attain, was held by members of this family exclusively. 
The Sugawara family, of which six families of huge, are descendants, 
is nearly as old as the Fujiwara. Its members have been noted for 
scholarship and learning, and as teachers and lecturers on religion. 

The Taira family was founded by Takamochi, great grandson of 
the Emperor Kuammu (a.d. 782-805), and became prominent as the 
great military vassals of the mikado. But five kuge families claim 
descent from the survivors. 

The Minamoto family was founded by Tsunemoto, grandson of 
the Emperor Seiwa (839-880). They were the rivals of the Taira. 
Seventeen families of kuge are descended from this old stock. The 
office of Sei-i Tai Shogun, or Barbarian-chastising Great General, was 
monopolized by the Minamoto, and, later, by other branches of the 
stock, named Ashikaga and Tokugawa. 

Though so many offices were created in the seventh century, the 
kuge were sufficiently numerous to fill them. The members of the 
Fujiwara family gradually absorbed the majority, until almost all of 
the important ones at court, and the governorships of many provinces, 
were filled by them. When vacancies occurred, no question was 

8 



110 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

raised as to this or that man's fitness for the position : it was simply 
one of high descent, and a man of Fujiwara blood was sure to get the 
appointment, whether he had abilities or not. This family, in spite 
of its illustrious name and deeds, are to be credited with the forma- 
tion of a "ring" around the mikado, which his people could not 
break, and with the creation of one of the most accursed systems of 
nepotism ever seen in any country. Proceeding step by step, with 
craft and signal ability, they gradually obtained the administration of 
the government in the mikado's name. Formerly it had been the 
privilege of every subject to petition the sovereign. The Fujiwara 
ministers gradually assumed the right to open all such petitions, and 
decide upon them. They also secured the appointment of younger 
sons, brothers, nephews, and kinsmen to all the important positions. 
They based their hold on the throne itself by marrying their daugh- 
ters to the mikado, whose will was thus bent to their own designs. 
For centuries the empresses were chiefly of Fujiwara blood. In this 
way, having completely isolated the sovereign, they became the virtual 
rulers of the country and the proprietors of the throne, and dictated 
as to who should be made emperor. Every new office, as fast as cre- 
ated, was filled by them. In the year 888, the title of Kuambaku 
(literally, " the bolt inside the gate," but meaning " to represent to 
the mikado ") was first used and bestowed on a Fujiwara noble. The 
Kuambaku was the highest subject in the empire. He was regent 
during the minority of the emperor, or when an empress filled the 
throne. The office of Kuambaku, first filled by Fujiwara Mototsune, 
became hereditary in the family, thus making them all powerful. In 
time the Fujiwaras, who had increased to the proportions of a great 
clan, were divided into five branches called the Sekke, or Regent fam- 
ilies, named Konoye, Kujo, Nijo, Ichijo, and Takadzukasa. 

So long as the succession to the throne was so indefinite, and on 
such a wide basis, it was easy for this powerful family to choose the 
heir whenever the throne was empty, as it was in their power to make 
it empty when it so suited them, by compelling the mikado to abdicate. 

In a.d. 794 the capital was removed to Kioto, seven miles from 
Lake Biwa, and there permanently located. Before that time it was 
at Kashiwabara, at Nara,* or at some place in the Home Provinces 

* The ancient town of Nara, one of the most interesting in all Japnn, lies about 
twenty miles due east of Ozaka, in Yamato. The town and neighborhood abound 
with antiquities, mikado's tombs, grand old temples, and colossal images of 
Buddha. Seven sovereigns, of whom four were females, ruled at Nara from a.d. 



THE THRONE AND THE NOBLES. Ill 

(kinai) of Yamato, Yamashiro, or Settsu. So long as the course of 
empire was identified with that of a central military chief, who was 
the ruler of a few provinces and suzerain of tributaries, requiring him 
to be often in camp or on the march, government was by the sword 
rather than by the sceptre, and the permanent location of a capi- 
tal was unnecessary. As the area of dominion increased and became 
more settled the government business grew apace, in amount and 
complexity, and division of labor was imperative, and a permanent 
capital was of prime importance. The choice was most felicitous. 
The ancient city of Heianjo, seven miles south-west of the southern 
end of Lake Biwa, was chosen. The Japanese word meaning capital, 
or large city, is miako, of which kid or kid to is the Chinese equiva- 
lent. The name Heianjo soon fell into disuse, the people speaking of 
the city as the miako. Even this term gave way in popular usage to 
Kioto. Miako is now chiefly used in poetry, while the name most 
generally applied has been and is Kioto, the miako by excellence. 
Kioto remained the capital of Japan until 1868, when the miako was 
removed to Yedo, which city having become the kid, was re-named 
Tokio, or Eastern capital. The name Yedo is no longer in use among 
the Japanese. No more eligible site could have been chosen for the 
purpose. Kioto lies not mathematically, but geographically and prac- 
tically in respect of the distribution of population and habitable area, 
in the centre of Japan. It is nearly in the middle of the narrowest 
neck of land between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. It 
lies at the foot, and stands like a gate between the great mountain 
ranges, diverging north and south, or east and west. Its situation at 
the base of the great central lake of Biwa, or Omi, forty miles from 
whose northern point is the harbor and sea-port of Tsuruga, makes it 

708-782. Their reigns were prosperous and glorious, and were distinguished for 
the cultivation of the arts, literature, and religion. Here, in 711, the Eojiki was 
written, and in 713, by orders of the imperial court, sent to all the governors of 
provinces ; a book, in sixty-six volumes, descriptive of the provinces, cities, mount- 
ains, rivers, valleys, and plains, plants, trees, birds, and quadrupeds, was begun, 
and finished in 1634. Only fragments of this fine work are now extant. In the 
period 708-715 copper was discovered. In 739, the colossal gilded copper image 
of Buddha, fifty-three feet high, was cast and set up. Many envoys from China, 
and Buddhist priests from Siam, India, and China, visited Nara, one of the lat- 
ter bringing a library of five thousand volumes of Buddhist literature. In 749 
it was forbidden by imperial edict to slaughter animals in Japan. A large col- 
lection of the personal and household articles in the possession of the mikados 
of the eighth century was exhibited at Nara in June, 1875, the inventories made 
at that ancient period being accessible for comparison. 



112 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

acccessible to the ships coming from the entire west coast and from 
Yezo. On the west and east the natural mountain roads and passes 
slope down and open toward it. Forty miles to the south are the 
great harbors lining the bay of Ozaka, the haven of all ships from 
northern or southern points of the eastern coast. Easy river com- 
munications connect Ozaka with Kioto. 

The miako is beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole empire 
of Japan. The tone of reverential tenderness, of exulting joy, the 
sparkling of the eyes with which Japanese invariably speak of Kidto, 
witness to the fact of its natural beauty, its sacred and classic associa- 
tions, and its place in the affections of the people. The city stands 
on an elliptical plain walled in on all sides by evergreen hills and 
mountains, like the floor of a huge flattened crater no longer choked 
with lava, but mantled with flowers. On the south the river Kamo, 
and on the north, east, and west, flowing in crystal clearness, the afflu- 
ents of Kamo curve around the city, nearly encircle it, uniting at the 
south-west to form the Yodo River. Through the centre and in sev- 
eral of the streets the branches of the river flow, giving a feeling of 
grateful coolness in the heats of summer, and is the source of the 
cleanliness characteristic of Kioto. The streets run parallel and cross 
at right angles, and the whole plan of the city is excellent. The 
mikado's palace is situated in the north-eastern quarter. Art and 
nature are wedded in beauty. The monotony of the clean squares 
is broken by numerous groves, temples, monasteries, and cemeteries. 
On the mountain overlooking the city peep out pagodas and shrines. 
The hill-slopes blossom with gardens. The suburbs are places of de- 
light and loveliness. The blue Lake of Biwa, the tea-plantations of 
Uji, the thousand chosen resorts of picnic groups in the adjacent 
shady hills, the resorts for ramblers, the leafy walks for the poet, the 
groves for the meditative student or the pious monk, the thousand 
historical and holy associations invest Kioto with an interest attaching 
to no other place in Japan. Here, or in its vicinity, have dwelt for 
seventeen centuries the mikados of Japan. 

As the children and descendants of the mikados increased at the 
capital there was formed the material for classes of nobility. It was 
to the interest of these nobles to cherish with pride their traditions 
of divine descent. Their studied exaltation of the mikado as their 
head was the natural consequence. The respect and deference of dis- 
tant tributary princes wishing to obtain and preserve favor at court 
served only to increase the honor of these nobles of the capital. The 



THE THRONE AND THE NOBLES. 113 

fealty of the distant princes was measured not only by their trib- 
ute and military assistance, but by their close conformity to the cus- 
toms of the miako, which naturally became the centre of learning and 
civilization. 

Previous to the era of Sujin, the observance of the time of begin- 
ning the new year, as well as the celebration of the sacred festivals to 
the gods, was not the same throughout the provinces. The acceptance 
of a uniform calendar promulgated from the capital was then, as now, 
a sign of loyalty of far greater significance than would appear to us 
at first sight. This was forcibly shown in Yokohama, as late as 1872, 
after the mikado had abolished the lunar, and ordered the use of 
the solar, or Gregorian, calendar in his dominions. The resident Chi- 
nese, in an incendiary document, which was audaciously posted on 
the gates of the Japanese magistrate's office, denounced the Japanese 
for having thus signified, by the adoption of the barbarians' time, 
that they had yielded themselves up to be the slaves of the " foreign 
devils." 

The mikado has no family name. He needs none, because his 
dynasty never changes. Being above ordinary mortals, no name is 
necessary to distinguish him from men. He need be personally dis- 
tinguished only from the gods. When he dies, he will enter the 
company of the gods. He is deified under some name, with Tenno 
(son, or king, of heaven) affixed. It was not proper (until 1872, 
when the custom was abrogated) for ordinary people to pronounce 
the name of the living mikado aloud, or to write it in full : a stroke 
should be left out of each of the characters. 

Previous to the general use of Chinese writing, the mikados, about 
fifty in all, had long names ending in " mikoto," a term of respect equiv- 
alent to " augustness," and quite similar to those applied to the gods. 
These extremely long names, now so unmanageable to foreign, and 
even to modern native, tongues, gave place in popular use to the great- 
ly abbreviated Chinese equivalents. A complete calendar of the names 
of the gods and goddesses, mikados and empresses and heroes, was 
made out in Chinese characters. It is so much more convenient to 
use these, that I have inserted them in the text, even though to do so 
seems in many an instance an anachronism. The difference in learned 
length and thundering sound of the Japanese and the Chinese form 
of some of these names will be easily seen and fully appreciated after 
a glance, by the Occidental reader who is terrified at the uncouthness 
of both, or who fears to trust his vocal organs to attempt their pro- 



114 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

nunciation. Amaterasu 6 mikami becomes Ten Sho Dai Jin ; Oki- 
naga Tarashi Hime becomes Jingu Kogo. 

After the Chinese writing became fashionable, the term mikoto 
was dropped. The mikados after death received a different name 
from that used when living : thus Kan Yamato Iware hiko no mikoto 
became, posthumously, Jimmu Tenno. 

The Golden Age of the mikado's power ceased after the introduc- 
tion of Buddhism and the Chinese system of officialdom. The de- 
cadence of his personal power began, and steadily continued. Many 
of the high ministers at court became Buddhists, as well as the mi- 
kados. It now began to be a custom for the emperors to abdicate 
after short reigns, shave off their hair in token of renunciation of 
the world, become monks, and retire from active life, taking the title 
Ho-o (ho, law of Buddha; o, mikado = cloistered emperor). During 
the eighth century, while priests were multiplying, and monasteries 
were everywhere being established, the court was the chief propaganda. 
The courtiers vied with each other in holy zeal and study of the sacred 
books of India, while the minds of the empresses and boy-emperors 
were occupied with schemes for the advancement of Buddhism. In 
741, the erection of two great temples, and of a seven-storied pagoda 
in each province, was ordered. The abdication after short reigns 
made the mikados mere puppets of the ministers and courtiers. In- 
stead of warriors braving discomforts of the camp, leading armies in 
battle, or fighting savages, the chief rulers of the empire abdicated, 
after short reigns, to retire into monasteries, or give themselves up to 
license. This evil state of affairs continued, until, in later centuries, 
effeminate men, steeped in sensual delights, or silly boys, who droned 
away their lives in empty pomp and idle luxury, or became the tools 
of monks, filled the throne. Meanwhile the administration of the 
empire from the capital declined, while the influence of the military 
classes increased. As the mikado's actual power grew weaker, his 
nominal importance increased. He was surrounded by a hedge of 
etiquette that secluded him from the outer world. He never appeared 
in public. His subjects, except his wife and concubines and highest 
ministers, never saw his face. He sat on a throne of mats behind a 
curtain. His feet were never allowed to touch the earth; When he 
went abroad in the city, he rode in a car closely curtained, and drawn 
by bullocks. The relation of emperor and subject thus grew mythic- 
al, and the way was paved for some bold usurper to seize the actual- 
ity of power, while the name remained sacred and inviolate. 



THE BEGINNING OF MILITARY DOMINATION. 115 



XII. 

THE BEGINNING OF MILITARY DOMINATION. 

With rank, place, and power as the prizes, there were not want- 
ing rival contestants to dispute the monopoly of the Fujiwara. The 
prosperity and domineering pride of the scions of this ancient house, 
instead of overawing those of younger families that were forming in 
the capital, served only as spurs to their pride and determination to 
share the highest gifts of the sovereign. It may be easily supposed 
that the Fujiwara did not attain the summit of their power without 
the sacrifice of many a rival aspirant. The looseness of the marriage 
tie, the intensity of ambition, the greatness of the prize — the throne 
itself — made the court ever the fruitful soil of intrigue, jealousies, 
proscription, and even the use of poison and the dagger. The fate 
of many a noble victim thus sacrificed on the altars of jealousy and 
revenge forms the subject of the most pathetic passages of the Jap- 
anese historians, and the tear-compelling scenes of the romance and 
the drama. The increase of families was the increase of feuds. Ar- 
rogance and pride were matched by craft and subtlety that finally led 
to quarrels which rent the nation, to civil war, and to the almost utter 
extinction of one of the great families. 

The Sugawara were the most ancient rivals of the Fujiwara. The 
most illustrious victim of court intrigue bearing this name was Suga- 
wara Michizane. This polished courtier, the Beauclerc of his age, 
had, by the force of his talents and learning, risen to the position of 
inner great minister. As a scholar, he ranked among the highest of 
his age. At different periods of his life he wrote, or compiled, from 
the oldest records various histories, some of which are still extant. 
His industry and ability did not, however, exempt him from the jeal- 
ous annoyances of the Fujiwara courtiers, who imbittered his life by 
poisoning the minds of the emperor and courtiers against him. One 
of them, Tokihira, secured an edict banishing him to Kiushiu. Here, 
in the horrors of poverty and exile, he endeavored to get a petition 
to the mikado, but failed to do so, and starved to death, on the 25th 



116 TEE MIKAD ' S EMPIRE. 

day of the Second month, 903. Michizane is now known by his 
posthumous name of Tenjin. Many temples have been erected in his 
honor, and students worship his spirit, as the patron god of letters 
and literature. Children at school pray to him that they may become 
good writers, and win success in study. Some of his descendants are 
still living. 

When Michizane died, the Sugawara were no longer to be dreaded 
as a rival family. Another brood were springing up, who were des- 
tined to become the most formidable rivals of the Fujiwara. More 
than a century before, one of the concubines, or extra wives, of the 
Emperor Kuammu had borne a son, who, having talents as well as im- 
perial blood, rose to be head of the Board of Civil Office, and master 
of court ceremonies — an office similar to the lord high chamberlain 
of England.* To his grandson Takamochi was given the surname of 
Taira in 889 — one hundred and one years before the banishment of 
Michizane. 

The' civil offices being already monopolized by the Fujiwara, the 
members of the family of Taira early showed a fondness and special 
fitness for military life, which, with their experience, made them most 
eligible to the commands of military expeditions. The Fujiwara had 
become wholly wedded to palace life, and preferred the ease and lux- 
ury of the court to the discomforts of the camp and the dangers of 
the battle-field. Hence the shoguns, or generals, were invariably ap- 
pointed among sons of the Taira or the Minamoto, both of which 
families became the military vassals of the crown. While the men 
led the armies, fought the foe, and returned in triumph, the mothers 
at home fired the minds of their sons with the recital of the deeds of 
their fathers. Thus bred to arms, inured to war, and living chiefly in 
the camp, a hardy race of warriors grew up and formed the military 
caste. So long as the Taira or Minamoto leaders were content with 
war and its glory, there was no reason for the Fujiwara to fear dan- 
ger from them as rivals at court. But in times of peace and inaction, 
the minds of these men of war longed to share in the spoils of peace; 
or, having no more enemies to conquer, their energies were turned 
against their fellows. The peculiar basis of the imperial succession 
opened an equally wide field for the play of female ambition ; and 

* Princes of the blood were eligible to the following offices : Minister of the 
imperial household, lord high chamberlain, minister of war, president of the 
censorate, and the governorships of Kodzuke, Kadzusa, and Hitachi. The act- 
ual duties of the office were, however, performed by inferior officials. 



THE BEGINNING OF MILITARY DOMINATION 117 

while Taira and Minamoto generals lusted after the high offices held 
by Fujiwara courtiers, Taira and Minamoto ladies aspired to become 
empresses, or at least imperial concubines, where they might, for the 
glory of their family, beard the dragon of power in his own den. 
They had so far increased in influence at court, that in 1008, the 
wife of the boy-emperor, Ichijo, was chosen from the house of Mi- 
namoto. 

The Minamoto family, or, as the Chinese characters express the 
name, Genji, was founded by Tsunemoto, the grandson of Seiwa 
(859-880) and son of the minister of war. His great-grandson Yori- 
yoshi became a shogun, and was sent to fight the Ainos; and the 
half-breeds, or rebels of mixed Aino and Japanese blood, in the east 
and extreme north of Hondo. Yoriyoshi's son, Yoshiiye, followed 
his father in arms, and was likewise made a shogun. So terrible was 
Yoshiiye in battle that he was called Hachiman taro. The name Taro 
is given to the first-born son. Hachiman is the Buddhist form of 
Ojin, the deified son of Jingu Kogo, and the patron of warriors, or 
god of war. After long years of fighting, he completely tranquilized 
the provinces of the Kuanto. His great-grandson Yoshitomo* became 



* The family name (uji) precedes the personal, or what we call the baptismal 
or Christian name. Thus the full name of the boy Kotaro, son of Mr. Ota 
would be Ota Kotaro. Family names nearly always have a topographical mean- 
ing, having been taken from names of streets, villages, districts, rivers, mount- 
ains, etc. The following are specimens, taken from the register of my students 
m the Imperial College in Tokio, many of whom are descendants of the illustri- 
ous personages mentioned in this book, or in Japanese history. The great bulk 
of the Samurai claim descent from less than a hundred original families- Plain- 
village, Crane-slope, Hill-village, Middle -mountain, Mountain -foot, Grove-en- 
trance, High-bridge, East-river, River-point, Garden-mountain, River-meadow, 
Pine-village, Great-tree, Pine-well, Shrine-promontory, Cherry-well, Cedar-bay, 
Lower-field, Stone-pine, Front-field, Bamboo-bridge, Large-island, Happy-field, 
Shrme-plain, Temple-island, Hand-island, North-village, etc., etc. It was not the 
custom to have godparents, or namesakes, in our sense of these words Mid- 
dle names were not given or used, each person having but a family and a person- 
al name. Neither could there be a senior and junior of exactly the same name 
in the same family, as with us. The father usually bestowed on his son half of 
his name ; that is, he gave him one of the Chinese characters with which his own 
was written. Thus, Toriyoshi named his first-born son Yoshiiy^, i. e Yoshi 
(good) and iye (house or family). Yoshiiye had six sons, named, respectively 
Yoshimune-, Yoshichika, Yoshikuni, Yoshitada, Yoshitoki, and Yoshitaka. The 
laira nobles retained the mori in Tadamori, in their own personal names Fe- 
male names were borrowed from those of beautiful and attractive objects or of 
auspicious omens, and were usually not changed at marriage or throughout life 
Males made use during life of a number of appellations given them, or assumed 
on the occasions of birth, reaching adult age, official promotion, change of life- 



118 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



the greatest rival of the Taira, and the father of Yoritomo, one of the 
ablest men in Japanese history. The star of Minamoto was in the 
ascendant. 

Meanwhile the Taira shoguns, who had the military oversight of 
the South and West, achieved a succession of brilliant victories. As 
a reward for his services, the court bestowed the island of Tsushima 
on Tadamori, the head of the house. It being a time of peace, Ta- 
damori came to Kioto to live, and while at court had a liaison with 
one of the palace lady attendants, whom he afterward married. The 
fruit of this union was a son, who grew to be a man of stout physique. 
In boyhood he gave equal indications of his future greatness and his 




View iu the Inland Sea. 



future arrogance. He wore unusually high clogs — the Japanese equiv- 
alent for " riding a high horse." His fellows gave the strutting roist- 
erer the nickname of Tcoheda ("high clogs"). Being the son of a 
soldier, he had abundant opportunity to display his valor. At this 



or on account of special events, entering a monastery, and after death. This cus- 
tom as a police measure, as well as for other reasons, was abolished in 1872. Oft- 
en a superior rewarded an inferior by bestowing upon him a new name, or by al- 
lowing him to incorporate one of the syllables expressed vividly to the eye by a 
Chinese character, of the superior's name. It was never the custom to name 
children after great men, as we do after our national heroes. Formerly the gen- 
itive particle no (of) was used; as Minamoto no Yoritomo means Yoritomo of 
the Minamoto family. In 1872, the peasantry were allowed to have family as 
well as individual names. 



THE BEGINNING OF MILITARY DOMINATION. 119 

time the seas swarmed with pirates, who ravaged the coasts and were 
the scourge of Corea as well as Japan. Kiyomori, a boy full of fire 
and energy, thirsting for fame, asked to be sent against the pirates. 
At the age of eighteen he cruised in the Sea of Iyo, or the Suwo 
Nada, which is part of the Inland Sea, a sheet of water extremely 
beautiful in itself, and worthy, in a high degree, to be called the 
Mediterranean of Japan. While on shipboard, he made himself a 
name by attacking and capturing a ship full of the most desperate 
villains, and by destroying their lurking-place. His early manhood 
was spent alternately in the capital and in service in the South. In 
1153, at the age of thirty-six, he succeeded his father as minister of 
justice. The two families of Minamoto and Taira, who had together 
emerged from comparative obscurity to fame, place, and honor, had 
dwelt peacefully together in Kioto, or had been friendly rivals as sol- 
diers in a common cause on distant battle-fields, until the year 1156, 
from which time they became implacable enemies. In that year the 
first battle was fought between the adherents of two rival claimants 
of the throne. The Taira party was successful, and obtained posses- 
sion of the imperial palace, which gave them the supreme advantage 
and prestige which have ever since been possessed by the leader or 
party in whose hands the mikado is. The whole administration of 
the empire was now at Kiyomori's disposal. The emperor, who thus 
owed his elevation to the Taira, made them the executors of his poli- 
cy. This was the beginning of the domination of the military classes 
that lasted until 1868. The ambition of Kiyomori was now not only 
to advance himself to the highest position possible for a subject to 
occupy, but also to raise the influence and power of his family to the 
highest pitch. He further determined to exterminate the only rivals 
whom he feared — the Minamoto. Not content with exercising the 
military power, he filled the offices at court with his own relatives, 
carrying the policy of nepotism to a point equal to that of his rivals, 
the Fujiwara. In 1167, at the age of fifty years, having, by his ener- 
gy and cunning, made himself the military chief of the empire, hav- 
ing crushed not only the enemies of the imperial court, but also his 
own, and having tremendous influence with the emperor and court, 
he received the appointment of Dai Jo Dai Jin. 

Kiyomori was thus, virtually, the ruler of Japan. In all his meas- 
ures he was assisted, if not often instigated to originate them by the 
ex-emperor, Go - Shirakawa, who ascended the throne in 1156, and 
abdicated in 1159, but was the chief manager of affairs during the 



120 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



reigns of his son and two grandsons. This mikado was a very im- 
moral man, and the evident reason of his resigning was that he might 
abandon himself to debauchery, and wield even more actual power 
than when on the throne. In 1169, he abdicated, shaved off his hair, 
and took the title of Ho-o, or " cloistered emperor," and became a 
Buddhist monk, professing to retire from the world. In industrious 
seclusion, he granted the ranks and titles created by his predecessor 
in lavish profusion. He thus exercised, as a monk, even more influ- 
ence than when in actual office. The head of the Taira hesitated not 
to use all these rewards for his own and his family's private ends. 
In him several offices were held by one person. He argued that as 




View near Hiogo, from near the Site of the Taira Palace. 

others who had done no great services for court or emperor had 
held high offices, he who had done so much should get all he could. 
Finally, neither court nor emperor could control him, and he banished 
huge, and even moved the capital and court at his pleasure. In 
1168, the power of the Taira family was paramount. Sixty mCn of 
the house held high offices at court, and the lands from which they 
enjoyed revenue extended over thirty provinces. They had splendid 
palaces in Kioto and at Fukuwara, where the modern treaty-port of 
Hiogo now stands overlooking the splendid scenery of the Inland Sea. 
Hesitating at nothing that would add to his glory or power, Kiyo- 
mori, in 1171, imitating his predecessors, made his daughter the con- 



THE BE O INNING OF MILITARY DOMINATION 



121 



cubine, and afterward the wife, of the Emperor Takakura, a boy eleven 
years old. Of his children one was now empress, and his two sons 
were generals of highest rank. His cup of power was full. 

The fortunes of the Fujiwara and Minamoto were under hopeless 
eclipse, the former having no military power, the latter being scat- 
tered in exile. Yoshitomo, his rival, had been killed, while in his bath, 
by Osada, his own traitorous retainer, who was bribed by Kiyomori to 
do the deed. The head of Yoshitomo's eldest son had fallen under 
the sword at Kioto, and his younger sons — the last of the Minamoto, 
as he supposed — were in banishment, or immured in monasteries. 




Tamelomo defying the Taira men, after sinking their Ship. (From the vignette op 
the greenback national-bank notes, drawn by a native artist.) 

The most famous archer, Minamoto Tametomo, took part in many 
of the struggles of the two rival families. His great strength, equal 
to that of many men (fifty, according to the legends), and the fact 
that his right arm was shorter than his left, enabled him to draw a 
bow which four ordinary warriors could not bend, and send a shaft 
five feet long, with enormous bolt -head. The court, influenced by 
the Taira, banished him, in a cage, to Idzu (after cutting the muscles 
of his arm), under a guard. He escaped, and fled to the islands of 
Oshima and Hachijo, and the chain south of the Bay of Yedo. His 
arm having healed, he ruled over the people, ordering them not to 
send tribute to Idzu or Kioto. A fleet of boats was sent against 
him. Tametomo, on the strand of Oshima, sped a shaft at one of the 



122 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

approaching vessels that pierced the thin gunwale and sunk it. He 
then, after a shout of defiance, shut himself up, set the house on fire, 
and killed himself. Another account declares that he fled to the Liu 
Kiu Islands, ruled over them, and founded the family of Liu Kiu 
kings, being the father of Sunten, the first historical ruler of this 
group of islands. A picture of this doughty warrior has been chosen 
to adorn the greenback currency of the banks of modern Japan. 

" Woe unto thee, O land, when thy king is a child !" The mika- 
dos* during the Taira period were nearly all children. Toba began 
to reign at six, abdicating at seventeen in behalf of his son Shiutoku, 
four years old ; who at twenty-four resigned in favor of Konoye, then 
four years old. The latter died at the age of sixteen, and was suc- 
ceeded by Go-Shirakawa, who abdicated after three years in favor of 
Nijo, sixteen years old, who died after six years, when Rokujo, one 
year old, succeeded. After three years, Takakura, eight years old, 
ruled thirteen years, resigning to Antoku, then three years of age. 
It is easily seen that the real power lay not with these boys and ba- 
bies, but with the august wire-pullers behind the throne. 

The Heike Monogatari, or the " Historic Romance of the Taira," is 
one of the most popular of the many classic works of fiction read by 
all classes of people in Japan. In this book the chief events in the 
lives, and even the manners and personal appearance, of the principal 
actors of the times of the Taira are seen, so that they become more 
than shadows of names, and seem to live before us, men of yesterday. 
The terms Heike and Genji, though Chinese forms of the names Taira 
and Minamoto, were, from their brevity, popularly used in preference 
to the pure native, but longer, forms of Taira and Minamoto. 

* For convenience of reference, the following chronological list of the sover- 
eigns of Japan is here appended. It is based on the list given in the Nihon JRiya- 
ku Shi (Abridgment of Japanese History), Tokio, 1874— a book from which I have 
drawn freely in this work. The dates of their reigns, in terms of the Gregorian 
calendar, are obtained chiefly from a comparative almanac of Chinese, Japanese, 
and Western dates, compiled by a learned native scholar, who brings down this 
invaluable chronological harmony to the third day of the Twelfth month of Meiji 
(January 1st, 1874), when the solar or Gregorian calendar was adopted in Japan. 
The year dates approximate to within a few weeks of exactness. The names in 
italics denote female sovereigns. In two instances (37 and 39, 48 and-50), one em- 
press reigned twice, and has two posthumous titles. I have put the name of 
Jingu Kogo in the list, though the Dai Nihon Shi does not admit it, she having 
never been crowned or formally declared empress by investiture with the regalia 
of sovereignty. In several cases the duration of the reign was less than a year. 
The five "false emperors," printed in black spaces, are omitted from this list. 
Only the posthumous titles under which the mikados were apotheosized are here 



TEE BEGINNING OF MILITARY DOMINATION. 



123 



given, though their living names, and those of their parents, are printed in the 
Nihon Riyaku Shi. Including Jingu, there were 123 sovereigns. The average 
length of the reigns of 122 was nearly twenty-one years. There has been but one 
dynasty in Japan. In comparison, the present emperor of China is the 273d, and 
the dynasty the 23d or 24th. 

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF JAPANESE EMPERORS. 



o 


Posthumous 
Title. 


Age at 
Death. 


Date of Reign. 


O 

63. 

64. 

65. 

66. 

67. 

68. 

69. 

70. 

71. 

72. 

73. 

74. 

75. 

76. 

77. 

78. 

79. 

80. 

81. 

82. 

83. 

84. 

85. 

86. 

87. 

88. 

89. 

90. 

91. 

92. 

93. 

94. 

95. 

96. 

97. 

98. 

99. 
100. 
101. 
102. 
103. 
104. 
105. 
106. 
107. 
108. 
109. 
110. 
111. 
112. 
113. 
114. 
115. 
116. 
117. 
118. 
119. 
120. 
121. 
122. 
123. 


Posthumous 
Title. 


Age at 
Death. 


Date of Reign. 


1 


Jimmu 

Suisei 

Annei 

Itoku 

Kosho 

Koau 

Korei 

Kogen 

Kuaika 

Siijin 

Sniniu 

Keiko 

Seimu 

Chiuai 

Jingu Kogo. 

Ojiu 

Nintoku 

Richiu 

Hansho 

Inkio 

Anko 

Yuriyaku... 

Seiuei 

Kenso 

Ninken 

Buretsu 

Keitai 

Aukau 

Senkua 

Kimmei — 
Bidatsu — 

Yomei 

Sujnn 

Suiko 

Joraei 

Kogioku 

Kotoku 

Saimei 

Teuchi 

Kobun 

Temmu 


127 

84 

57 

77 

114 

137 

128 

116 

115 

119 

141 

143 

108 

52 

100 

111 

110 

77 

60 

SO 

56 

62 

41 

38 

51 

57 

82 

70 

73 

63 

48 

69 

73 

75 

49 

68 

59 

58 
25 
65 
58 
25 
61 
69 
56 
53 
33 

73 
70 
51 
57 
55 
41 
32 
31 
82 
58 
65 
46 
30 


660-585 B.C. 
581-549 " 
548-511 '« 
510-477 " 
475-393 " 
392-291 " 
290-215 " 
214-158 " 
157- 98 " 
97- 30 " 

29 B.C. to 70 A.D. 

71-130 " 
131-191 " 
192-200 " 
201-269 " 
270-310 " 
313-399 " 
400-405 " 
406-411 " 
412-453 " 
454-456 " 
457-479 " 
480^84 " 
485-487 " 
488-498 " 
499-506 " 
507-531 " 
534-535 " 
536-539 " 
540-571 " 
572-585 " 
586-587 " 
588-592 " 
593-628 " 
629-641 " 
642-644 " 
645-654 " 
655-661 " 
668-672 " 
672-672 " 
673-686 " 
690-696 " 
697-707 " 
708-714 " 
715-723 " 
724-748 " 
749-758 " 
759-764 " 
765-769 " 
770-781 " 
7S2-805 " 
806-S09 " 
810-823 " 
824-833 " 
834-850 " 
851-858 " 
859-876 " 
877-S84 " 
885-887 " 
888-897 " 
898-930 " 
931-946 " 


Murakami 


42 
62 
33 
41 
32 
43 
29 
37 
44 
40 
77 
29 
55 
46 
17 
66 
23 
13 
21 
8 
60 
37 
46 
17 
23 
12 
53 
62 
57 
58 
53 
49 
24 
52 
52 
41 

78 
57 
28 
52 
59 
63 
62 
75 
47 
85 
74 
22 
49 
79 
35 
37 
31 
22 
74 
22 
70 
47 
37 


947 967 A D 





Reizei 


968- 969 " 


% 


Euniu 


970 9S4 " 


<\ 


Kuasau 


985- 9S6 " 


5 




987 1011 " 


6 




1012 1016 " 


7 




1017 1036 " 


S. 
9. 

in 


Go-Shujaku 

Go-Reizei 


1037-1046 " 
1047-1068 " 
1069 1072 " 


11 




1073-1086 " 


\9 


Horikawa 


1087 1107 " 


13 


Toba 


1108-1123 " 


14 


Shiutoku 


1124-1141 " 


IS 




1142 1155 " 


16. 
IT 


Go-Shirakawa 


1156-1158 " 
1159 1165 " 


I s ! 




1166 1168 " 


10 




1169 11S0 " 


90 


Antoku 


1181 1185 " 


VI 


Gotoba 


11S4-1198 " 


22. 
?!3 


Tsuchimikado 


1199-1210 " 
1211 1221 " 


94 


Chiukio 


1222-1222 " 


25. 
26. 
?7 


Go-Horikawa 

Shijo 

Go-Saga 


1222-1232 " 
1233-1242 " 
1243 1246 " 


28. 

29. 
SO 


Go-Fnkakusa 

Kameyama 

Go-Uda 


1247-1259 " 
1260-1274 ,: 
1275-1287 " 


31 




1288 1298 " 


32, 

3a 


Go-Fushimi 


1299-1301 " 
1302 1307 " 


34 




1308-131S " 


35 




1319 1338 " 


36. 

37 


Go-Murakami 

Chokei 


1339-1367 " 
136S 1383 " 


38. 

39. 
40. 


Go-Kameyama 

Go-Koma'tsu 

Shoko 


1383-1392 " 
1393-1412 " 
1413 1428 " 


41. 
49 


Go-Hanazono 

Go-Tsuchimikado . . 
Go-Kashiwara 


1429-1464 " 
1465-1500 " 
1501-1526 " 
1527 1557 " 


43. 
44. 


Momma 

Gemmid 

Gensho 

Shomu 

Koken 

Jtirmin 

Shbtoku 

Konin 

Knarama.. . 

Heijo 

Saga 

Junwa 

Nimmio 

Montoku . . . 

Seiwa 

Yozei 

Koko 

Uda 

Daigo 


45. 




155S 1586 " 


46. 




15S7 1611 " 


47. 




1612-1629 «' 


48. 




1630 1643 " 


49. 




1644-1654 " 


BO. 




1655 1662 " 


51. 

52. 
53. 
54. 
55. 
56. 
57. 
58. 


Reigen 

Higashiyama 

NaKanomikado 

Sakuramachi 

Momozono 

Go-Sakuramachi . . . 
Go-Momozono 


1663-1686 " 
1687-1709 " 
1710-1735 " 
1736-1746 " 
1747-1762 " 
176:;-! 770 " 
1771-1779 " 
1780-1816 " 


59. 




1 S 1 7 1S46 " 


60. 




1S47 1S66 " 


61. 




1867 " 


62. 


Shu.jnku 







124 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XIII. 

YORITOMO AND THE MINAMOTO FAMILY. 

Next to portraying the beauties of nature, there is no class of sub- 
jects in which the native artists delight more than in the historical 
events related in their classics. Among these there are none treated 
with more frequency and spirit than the flight of Yoshitomo's concu- 
bine, Tokiwa, after the death of her lord at the hands of bribed trai- 
tors. After the fight with the Taira in Kioto, in 1159, he fled east- 
ward, and was killed in a bath-room by three hired assassins at Ut- 
sumi, in Owari. Tokiwa was a young peasant-girl of surpassing beau- 
ty, whom Yoshitomo had made his concubine, and who bore him three 
children. She fled, to escape the minions of Taira. Her flight was 
in winter, and snow lay on the ground. She knew neither where to 
go nor how to subsist ; but, clasping her babe to her bosom, her two 
little sons on her right, one holding his mother's hand, the other car- 
rying his father's sword, trudged on. That babe at her breast was 
Yoshitsune — a name that awakens in the breast of a Japanese youth 
emotions that kindle his enthusiasm to emulate a character that was 
the mirror of chivalrous valor and knightly conduct, and that saddens 
him at the thought of one who suffered cruel death at the hands of 
a jealous brother. Yoshitsune, the youngest son of Yoshitomo, lives, 
and will live, immortal in the minds of Japanese youth as the Bayard 
of Japan. 

Kiyomori, intoxicated with success, conceived the plan of extermi- 
nating the Minamoto family root and branch. Not knowing where 
Tokiwa and her children had fled, he seized her mother, and had her 
brought to Kioto. In Japan, as in China, filial piety is the highest 
duty of man, filial affection the strongest tie. Kiyomori well knew 
that Tokiwa's sense of a daughter's duty would prevail over that of 
a mother's love or womanly fear. He expected Tokiwa to come to 
Kioto to save her mother. 

Meanwhile the daughter, nearly frozen and half starved, was met in 
her flight by a Taira soldier, who, pitying her and her children, gave 



YORITOMO AND THE MINAMOTO FAMILY. 125 

her shelter, and fed her with his own rations. Tokiwa heard of her 
mother's durance at Kioto. Then came the struggle between mater- 
nal and filial love. To enter the palace would be the salvation of her 
mother, but the death of her children.- What should she do ? Her 
wit showed her the way of escape. Her resolution was taken to go 
to the capital, and trust to her beauty to melt the heart of Kiyomori. 
Thus she would save her mother and the lives of her sons. 

Her success was complete. Appearing in the presence of the 
dreaded enemy of her children, Kiyomori was dazed by her beauty, 
and wished to make her his concubine. At first she utterly refused ; 
but her mother, weeping floods of tears, represented to her the mis- 
ery of disobedience, and the happiness in store for her, and Tokiwa 
was obliged to yield. She consented on condition of his sparing her 
offspring. 

Kiyomori's retainers insisted that these young Minamotos should 
be put to death ; but by the pleadings of the beautiful mother, backed 
by the intercession of Kiyomori's aunt, their lives were spared. The 
babe grew to be a healthy, rosy-cheeked boy, small in stature, with a 
ruddy face and slightly protruding teeth. In spirit he was fiery and 
impetuous. All three of the boys, when grown, were sent to a monas- 
tery near Kioto, to be made priests : their fine black hair was shaved, 
and they put on the robes of Buddhist neophytes. Two of them re- 
mained so, but Yoshitsune gave little promise of becoming a grave 
and reverend bonze, who would honor his crape, and inspire respect 
by his bald crown and embroidered collar. He refused to have his 
hair shaved off, and in the monastery was irrepressibly merry, lively, 
and self-willed. The task of managing this young ox (Ushi-waka, he 
was then called) gave the holy brethren much trouble, and greatly 
scandalized their reverences. Yoshitsune, chafing at his dull life, 
and longing to take part in a more active one, and especially in the 
wars in the North, of which he could not but hear, determined to es- 
cape. How to do it was the question. 

Among the outside lay-folk who visited the monastery for trade 
or business was an iron-merchant, who made frequent journeys from 
Kioto to the north of Hondo. In those days, as now, the mines of 
Oshiu were celebrated for yielding the best iron for swords and other 
cutting implements. This iron, being smelted from the magnetic ox- 
ide and reduced by the use of charcoal as fuel, gave a steel of singular 
purity and temper which has never been rivaled in modern times. 

Yoshitsune begged the merchant to take him to Mutsu. He, be- 

9 



126 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ing afraid of offending the priest, would not at first consent. Yoshi- 
tsune persuaded him by saying that the priests would be only too 
glad to be rid of such a troublesome boy. The point was won, and 
Yoshitsune went off. The boy's surmises were correct. The priest 
thought it excellent riddance to very bad rubbish. 

While in the East, they stopped some time in Kadzusa, then infest- 
ed with robbers. Here Yoshitsune gave signal proof of his mettle. 
Among other exploits, he, on one occasion, single-handed and un- 
armed, seized a bold robber, and, on another, assisted a rich man to 
defend his house, killing five of the ruffians with his own hand. 
Yorishige, his companion and bosom-friend, begged him not to in- 
dulge in any unnecessary displays of courage, lest the Taira would 
surely hear of him, and know he was a Minamoto, and so destroy him. 
They finally reached their destination, and Yoshitsune was taken to 
live with Hidehira, a nobleman of the Fujiwara, who was prince of 
Mutsu. Here he grew to manhood, spending his time most conge- 
nially, in the chase, in manly sports, and in military exercises. At the 
age of twenty-one, he had won a reputation as a soldier of peerless 
valor and consummate skill, and the exponent of the loftiest code of 
Japanese chivalry. He became to Yoritomo, his brother, as Ney to 
Napoleon. Nor can the splendor of the marshal's courage outshine 
that of the young Japanese shogun's. 

Yoritomo, the third son of Yoshitomo, was born in the year 1146, 
and consequently was twelve years old when his brother Yoshitsune 
was a baby. After the defeat of his father, he, in the retreat, was 
separated from his companions, and finally fell into the hands of a 
Taira officer. On his way through a village called Awohaka, in Omi, a 
girl, the child of the daughter of the head-man whom Yoshitomo had 
once loved, hearing this, said, " I will follow my brother and die with 
him." Her people stopped her as she was about to follow Yoshitomo, 
but she afterward went out alone and drowned herself. The Taira 
officer brought his prize to Kioto, where his execution was ordered, 
and the day fixed ; but there, again, woman's tender heart and suppli- 
cations saved the life of one destined for greater things. The boy's 
captor had asked him if he would like to live. He answered, " Yes ; 
both my father and brother are dead; who but I can pray for their 
happiness in the next world?" Struck by this filial answer, the officer 
went to Kiyomori's step-mother, who was a Buddhist nun, having be- 
come so after the death of her husband, Tadamori. Becoming inter- 
ested in him, her heart was deeply touched; the chambers of her 



YORITOMO AND THE MINAMOTO FAMILY. 127 

memory were unlocked when the officer said, " Yoritomo resembles 
Prince Uma." She had borne one son of great promise, on whom 
she had lavished her affection, and who had been named Uma. The 
mother's bosom heaved under the robes of the nun, and, pitying Yori- 
tomo, she resolved to entreat Kiyomori to spare him. After import- 
unate pleadings, the reluctant son yielded to his mother's prayer, but 
condemned the youth to distant exile — a punishment one degree less 
than death, and Yoritomo was banished to the province of Tdzu. He 
was advised by his former retainers to shave off his hair, enter a mon- 
astery, and become a priest ; but Morinaga, one of his faithful serv- 
ants, advised him to keep his hair, and with a brave heart await the 
future. Even the few that still called themselves vassals of Minamoto 
did not dare to hold any communication with him, as he was under 
the charge of two officers who were responsible to the Taira for the 
care of their ward. Yoritomo was a shrewd, self-reliant boy, gifted 
with high self-control, restraining his feelings so as to express neither 
joy nor grief nor anger in his face, patient, and capable of great en- 
durance, winning the love and respect of all. He was as "Prince 
Hal." He afterward became as "bluff King Harry," barring the lat- 
ter's bad eminence as a marrier of many wives. 

Such was the condition of the Minamoto family. No longer in 
power and place, with an empress and ministers at court, but scat- 
tered, in poverty and exile, their lives scarcely their own. Yoritomo 
was fortunate in his courtship and marriage, the story of which is one 
of great romantic interest.* His wife, Masago, is one of the many fe- 

* Yoritomo had inquired which of the daughters of Hojo Tokimasa was most 
beautiful. He was told the eldest was most noted for personal charms, but the 
second, the child of a second wife, was homely. Yoritomo, afraid of a step-moth- 
er's jealousy (though fearing neither spear nor sword), deemed it prudent to pay 
his addresses to the homely daughter, and thus win the mother's favor also. He 
sent her a letter by the hand of Morinaga, his retainer, who, however, thought 
his master's affection for the plain girl would not last; so he destroyed his mas- 
ter's letter, and, writing another one to Masago, the eldest, sent it to her. It so 
happened that on the previous night the homely daughter dreamed that a pigeon 
came to her, carrying a golden box in her beak. On awaking, she told her dream 
to her sister, who was so interested in it that, after eager consideration, she re- 
solved " to buy her sister's dream," and, as a price, gave her toilet mirror to her 
sister, saying, as the Japanese always do on similar occasions, " The price I pay 
is little." The homely sister, perhaps thinking some of Masago's beauty might 
be reflected to hers, gladly bartered her unsubstantial happiness. Scarcely had 
she done this, than Yoritomo's (Morinaga's) letter came, asking her to be his 
bride. It turned out to be a true love-match. Masago was then twenty-one 
years of age— it being no ungallantry to state the age of a Japanese lady, living 



128 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

male characters famous in Japanese history. She contributed not a 
little to the success of her husband and the splendor of the Kamakura 
court, during her life, as wife and widow. She outlived her husband 
many years. Her father, Hojo Tokimasa, an able man, in whose veins 
ran imperial blood, made and fulfilled a solemn oath to assist Yori- 
tomo, and the Hojo family subsequently rose to be a leading one. in 
Japan. 

The tyranny and insolence of Kiyomori at Kioto had by this time 
(1180), one year before his death, become so galling and outrageous 
that one of the royal princes, determining to kill the usurper, con- 
spired with the Minamoto men to overthrow him. Letters were sent 
to the clansmen, and especially to Yoritomo, who wrote to Yoshitsune 
and to his friends to join him and take up arms. Among the for- 
mer retainers of his father and grandfather were many members of the 
Miura family. Morinaga personally secured the fealty of many men 
of mark in the Kuanto ; but among those who refused to rise against 
the Taira was one, Tsunetoshi, who laughed scornfully, and said, 
"For an exile to plot against the Heishi [Taira] is like a mouse 
plotting against a cat." 

At the head of the peninsula of Idzu is a range of mountains, the 
outjutting spurs of the chain that trends upward to the table-lands of 
Shinano, and thus divides Eastern from Western Japan. This range 
is called Hakone, and is famous not only as classic ground in history, 
but also as a casket enshrining the choicest gems of nature. It is 
well known to the foreign residents, who resort hither in summer to 
enjoy the pure air of its altitudes. Its inspiring scenery embraces a 
lake of intensely cold pure water, and of great depth and elevation 
above the sea-level, groves of aromatic pines of colossal size, savage 
gorges, sublime mountain heights, overcrowned by cloud-excelling Fuji, 
foaming cataracts, and boiling springs of intermittent and rhythmic 
flow, surrounded by infernal vistas of melted sulphur enveloped in 
clouds of poisonous steam, or incrusted with myriad glistening crys- 
tals of the same mineral. Over these mountains there is a narrow 
pass, which is the key of the Kuantd. Near the pass, above the vil- 



or dead. Masago's father, on his way home from Kioto, not knowing of the be- 
trothal of the young couple, promised Masago to Kanelaka, a Taira officer. On 
coming home, he would not break his word, and so married her to Kane'taka. 
But early on the wedding night Masago eloped with Yoritomo, who was at hand. 
Kane'taka searched in vain for the pair. Tokimasa outwardly professed to be 
very angry with Yoritomo, but really loved him. 



YORITOMO AND THE MINAMOTO FAMILY. 131 

lage of Yumoto, is Ishi Bashi Yama (Stone-bridge Mountain), and 
here Yoritomo's second battle was fought, and his first defeat experi- 
enced. " Every time his bowstring twanged an enemy fell," but final- 
ly he was obliged to flee. He barely escaped with his life, and fort- 
unately eluded pursuit, secreting himself in a hollow log, having first 
sent his father-in-law to call out all his retainers and meet again. He 
afterward hid in the priest's wardrobe, in one of the rooms of a tem- 
ple. Finally, reaching the sea-shore, he took ship and sailed across 
the bay to Awa. "At this time the sea and land were covered with 
his enemies." Fortune favored the brave. Yoritomo, defeated, but 
not discouraged, while on the water met a company of soldiers, all 
equipped, belonging to the Miura clan, who became his friends, and 
offered to assist him. Landing in Awa, he sent out letters to all the 
Minamoto adherents to bring soldiers and join him. He met with 
encouraging and substantial response, for many hated Kiyomori and 
the Taira ; and as Yoritomo's father and grandfather had given pro- 
tection and secured quiet in the Kuanto, the prestige of the Minamoto 
party still remained. The local military chieftains had fought under 
Yoritomo's father, and were now glad to join the son of their old 
leader. He chose Kamakura as a place of retreat and permanent resi- 
dence, it having been an old seat of the Minamoto family. Yoriyoshi 
had, in 1063, built the shrine of Hachiman at Tsurugaoka, near the 
village, in gratitude for his victories. Yoritomo now organized his 
troops, appointed his officers, and made arrangements to establish a 
fixed commissariat. The latter was a comparatively easy thing to do 
in a fertile country covered with irrigated rice-fields and girdled with 
teeming seas, and where the daily food of soldier, as of laborer, was 
rice and fish. Marching up around the country at the head of the 
Bay of Yedo through Kadzusa, Shimosa, Musashi, and Sagami, cross- 
ing, on his way, the Sumida River, which flows through the modern 
Tokio, many men of rank, with their followers and horses, joined 
him. His father-in-law also brought an army from Kai. In a few 
months he had raised large forces, with many noted generals. He 
awakened new life in the Minamoto clan, and completely turned the 
tide of success. Many courtiers from Kioto, disappointed in their 
schemes at court, or in any way chagrined at the Taira, flocked to 
Yoritomo as his power rose, and thus brought to him a fund of expe- 
rience and ability which he was not slow to utilize for his own bene- 
fit. Meanwhile the Taira had not been idle. A large army was dis- 
patched to the East, reaching the Fuji River, in Suruga, about the 



132 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

same time that the Minamoto, headed by Yoritomo, appeared on the 
other side. The Taira were surprised to see such a host in arms. 
Both armies encamped on opposite banks, and glared at each other, 
eager for the fight, but neither attempting to cross the torrent. This 
is not to be wondered at. The Fujikawa bears the just reputation of 
being the swiftest stream in Japan. It rises in the northern part of 
Kai, on the precipitous side of the group of mountains called Yatsu 
dake, or " eight peaks," and, winding around the western base of 
the lordly Fuji, collecting into its own volume a host of impetuous 
tributaries born from the snows of lofty summits, it traverses the rich 
province of Suruga in steep gradient, plunging across the Tokaido, in 
arrowy celerity and volcanic force, into the sea near the lordly mount- 
ain which it encircles. To cross it at any time in good boats is a feat 
requiring coolness and skill ; in a flood, impossibility ; in the face of a 
hostile attack, sure annihilation. Though supremely eager to measure 
swords, neither party cared to cross to the attack, and the wager of 
battle was postponed. Both armies retired, the Taira retreating first. 
It is said that one of the Taira men, foreseeing that the tide would 
turn in favor of Yoritomo, went to the river flats at night, and scared 
up the flocks of wild fowl ; and the Taira, hearing the great noise, im- 
agined the Minamoto host was attacking them, and fled, panic-stricken. 
Yoritomo returned to Kamakura, and began in earnest to found a city 
that ultimately rivaled Kioto in magnificence, as it excelled it in pow- 
er. He gathered together and set to work an army of laborers, car- 
penters, and armorers. In a few months a city sprung up where once 
had been only timbered hills and valleys,, matted with the perennial 
luxuriance of reeds or scrub bamboo, starred and fragrant with the 
tall lilies that still abound. The town lay in a valley surrounded by 
hills on every side, opening only on the glorious sea. The wall of 
hills was soon breached by cuttings which served as gate-ways, giving 
easy access to friends, and safe defense against enemies. While the 
laborers delved and graded, the carpenters plied axe, hooked adze, and 
chisel, and the sword-makers and armorers sounded a war chorus on 
their anvils by day, and lighted up the hills by their forges at night. 
The streets marked out were soon lined with shops ; and merchants 
came to sell, bringing gold, copper, and iron, silk, cotton, and hemp, 
and raw material for food and clothing, war and display. Store- 
houses of rice were built and filled ; boats were constructed and 
launched ; temples were erected. In process of time, the wealth of 
the Kuanto centred at Kamakura. While the old Taira chief lay dy- 



YORITOMO AXD THE JIIXAJ10T0 FA JULY. 133 

ing in Kioto, praying for Yoritomo's head to be laid on his new tomb, 
this same head, safely settled on vigorous shoulders, was devising the 
schemes, and seeing them executed, of fixing the Minamoto power 
permanently at Kamakura, and of wiping the name of Taira from the 
earth. 

The long night of exile, of. defeat, and defensive waiting of the 
Minamoto had broken, and their day had dawned with sudden and 
unexpected splendor. Henceforward they took the initiative. While 
Yoritomo carried on the enterprises of peace and the operations of 
war from his sustained stronghold, his uncle, Yukiiye, his cousin, 
Yoshinaka, and his brother, Yoshitsune, led the armies in the field. 

Meanwhile, in 1181, Kiyomori fell sick at Kioto. He had been a 
monk, as well as a prime minister. His death was not that of a saint. 
He did not pray for his enemies. The Nihon Guar Shi thus describes 
the scene in the chamber where the chief of the Taira lay dying : In 
the Second leap-month, his sickness having increased, his family and 
high officers assembled round his bedside, and asked him what he 
would say. Sighing deeply, he said, " He that is born must necessa- 
rily die, and not I alone. Since the period of Heiji (1159), I have 
served the imperial house. I have ruled under heaven (the empire) 
absolutely. I have attained the highest rank possible to a subject. 
I am the grandfather of the emperor on his mother's side. Is there 
still a regret ? My regret is only that I am dying, and have not yet 
seen the head of Yoritomo of the Minamoto. After my decease, do 
not make offerings to Buddha on my behalf ; do not read the sacred 
books. Only cut off the head of Yoritomo of the Minamoto, and 
hang it on my tomb. Let all my sons and grandsons, retainers and 
servants, each and every one, follow out my commands, and on no ac- 
count neglect them." So saying, Kiyomori died at the age of sixty- 
four. His tomb, near Hiogo, is marked b^ an upright monolith and 
railing of granite. Munemori, his son, became head of the Taira 
house. Strange words from a death-bed; yet such as these were 
more than once used by dying Japanese warriors. Yoritomo's head 
was on his body when, eighteen years afterward, in 1199, he died 
peacefully in his bed. 

Nevertheless, while in Kamakura, his bed-chamber was nightly guard- 
ed by chosen warriors, lest treachery might cut off the hopes of the 
Minamoto. The flames of war were now lighted throughout the 
whole empire. From Kamakura forces were sent into the provinces 
of Hitachi, in the East, and of Echizen and Kaga, North and West, 



134 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

lestroying the authority of the Kioto bureaucracy. Victory and in- 
crease made the army of the rising clan invincible. After numerous 
bloody skirmishes, the victors advanced through Omi, and swooped 
on the chief prize, and Kioto, the coveted capital, was in their hands. 
The captors of the city were Yukiiye and Yoshinaka, the uncle and 
cousin of Yoritomo respectively. The Taira, with the young mikado, 
Antoku, and his wife, Kiyomori's daughter, fled. Gotoba, his broth- 
er, was proclaimed mikado in his stead, and the estates and treasures 
of the Taira were confiscated, and divided among the victors. 

Yoshinaka was called the Asahi shogun (Morning-sun General), on 
account of the suddenness and brilliancy of his rising. Being now in 
command of a victorious army at the capital, swollen with pride, and 
intoxicated with sudden success, and with the actual power then in 
his hands, he seems to have lost his head. He was elevated to high 
rank, and given the title and office of governor of Echigo ; but hav- 
ing been bred in the country, he could not endure the cap and dress 
of ceremony, and was the subject of ridicule to the people of Kioto. 
He became jealous of his superior, Yoritomo, who was in Kamakura, 
two hundred miles away. He acted in such an arbitrary and over- 
bearing spirit that the wrath of the cloistered emperor Goshirakawa 
was roused against him. Being able to command no military forces, 
he incited the monks of the immense monasteries of Hiyeizan and 
Miidera, near the city, to obstruct his authority. Before they could 
execute any schemes, Yoshinaka, with a military force, seized them, 
put the ex-mikado in prison, beheaded the abbots, and deprived the 
high officers of state of their honors and titles. He then wrested 
from the court the title of Sei-i Shogun (Barbarian-subjugating Gen- 
eral). His exercise of power was of brief duration, for Yoshitsune 
was invested with the command of the forces in the West, and, sent 
against him, he was defeated and killed,* and the ex-mikado was re- 

* The details of this struggle are graphically portrayed in the Nihon Glial Shi. 
Yoshinaka had married the lady Fujiwara, daughter of the court noble, Motofusa. 
When the Kamakura army was approaching Kioto, and quite near the city, he 
left his troops, and called at the palace to take leave of his wife. A long while 
having elapsed before he appeared, and every moment being critical, two of his 
samurai, grieved at his unseasonable delay, remonstrated with him, and then 
committed suicide. This hastened his movements. He attempted to carry off 
the cloistered emperor, but was repulsed by Yoshitsune in person, and fled. 
His horse, falling into a quagmire in a rice-field, fell, and he, turning around to 
look at Kanehira, his faithful vassal, was hit by an arrow in the forehead and fell 
dead. He was thirty-one years old. Kanehira, having but eight arrows left in 
his quiver, shot down eight of the enemy's horsemen; and then, hearing a cry 



TORITOMO AND THE MINAMOTO FAMILY. 135 

leased, and the reigning emperor set free from the terrorism undei 
which he had been put. 

Meanwhile the Taira men, in their fortified palace at Fukuwara, 
were planning to recover their lost power, and assembling a great 
army in the South and West. The Minamoto, on the other hand, 
were expending all their energies to destroy them. The bitter ani- 
mosity of the two great families had reached such a pitch that the 
extermination of one or the other seemed inevitable. In 1 1 84, Yoshi- 
tsune laid siege to the Fukuwara palace, and, after a short time, set it 
on fire. The son of Kiyomori and his chief followers fled to Sanuki, 
in Shikoku. Thither, as with the winged feet of an avenger, Yoshi- 
tsune followed, besieged them at the castle of Yashima, burned it, 
and drove his enemies, like scattered sheep, to the Straits of Shimo- 
noseki. 

Both armies now prepared a fleet of junks, for the contest was to 
be upon the water. In the Fourth month of the year 1185, all was 
ready for the struggle. The battle was fought at Dan no ura, neai 
the modern town of Shimonoseki, where, in 1863, the combined 
squadrons of England, France, Holland, and the United States bom- 
barded the batteries of the Choshiu clansmen. In the latter instance 
the foreigner demonstrated the superiority of his artillery and disci- 
pline, and, for the sake of trade and gain, wreaked his vengeance as- 
savage and unjust as any that stains the record of native war. 

In 1185, nearly seven centuries before, the contest was between 
men of a common country. It was the slaughter of brother by broth- 
er. The guerdon of ambition was supremacy. The Taira clan were 
at bay, driven, pursued, and hunted to the sea-shore. Like a wound- 
ed stag that turns upon its pursuers, the clan were about to give final 
battle ; by its wager they were to decide their future destiny — a grave 
in a bloody sea, or peace under victory. They had collected five hun- 



among the enemy that his lord was dead, said, "My business is done," und, put- 
ting his sword in his mouth, fell skillfully from his horse so that the blade should 
pierce him, and died. His beautiful sister, Tomoye, was a concubine of Yoshi- 
naka; and being of great personal strength, constantly followed her lord in bat- 
tle, sheathed in armor and riding a swift horse. In this last battle she fought In 
the van, and, among other exploits, cut off the head of Iyeyoshi, one of Yoshi- 
tsunti's best men. When her lord fled, she asked to be allowed to die with him. 
He refused to allow her, and, in spite of her tears, persisted in his refusal. Doff- 
ing her armor, she reached Shinano by private paths, and thence retired into 
Echigo, shaved off her hair, became a nun, and spent the remainder of her life 
praying for the eternal happiness of Yoshinaka. 



136 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



dred vessels. They hurried on board their aged fathers and mothers, 
their wives and children. Among them were gentle ladies from the 
palace, whose silken robes seemed sadly out of place in the crowded 
junks. There were mothers, with babes at breast, and little children, 
too young to know the awful passions that kindle man against man. 
Among the crowd were the widow and daughter of Kiyomori, the 
former a nun, the latter the empress-dowager, with the dethroned mi- 
kado, a child six years old. With them were the sacred insignia of 
imperial power, the sword and ball. 

The Minamoto host was almost entirely composed of men, unin- 
cumbered with women or families. They had seven hundred junks. 

Both fleets were gayly 
_^-f^-~ ^^^H F fluttering with flags and 

streamers. The Taira pen- 
nant was red, the Minamo- 
to white, with two black 
bars near the top. The 
junks, though clumsy, 
were excellent vessels for 
fighting purposes — fully 
equal to the old war-gal- 
leys of Actium. 

On one side were brave 
men flushed with victory, 
with passions kindled by 
hate and the memory of 
awful wrongs. On the 
other side were brave 
men nerved with the cour- 
age of despair, resolved to die only in honor, scorning life and country, 
wounds and death. 

The battle began. With impetuosity and despair, the Taira drove 
their junks hard against the Minamoto, and gained a temporary ad- 
vantage by the suddenness of their onset. Seeing this, Yoshitsune, 
ever fearless, cried out and encouraged his soldiers. Then came a 
lull in the combat. Wada, a noted archer of the Minamoto, shot an 
arrow, and struck the junk of a Taira leader. " Shoot it back !" cried 
the chief. An archer immediately plucked it out of the gunwale, and, 
fitting it to his bow before the gaze of the crews of the hostile fleet, 
let fly. The arrow sped. It grazed the helmet of one, and pierced 




A Japanese War-junk of the Twelfth Century. 
(Vignette illustration on the national bank-notes.) 



YOBITOMO AND THE MINAMOTO FAMILY. 137 

another warrior. The Minamoto were ashamed. " Shoot it back !" 
thundered Yoshitsune. The archer, plucking it out and coolly ex- 
amining it, said, " It is short and weak." Drawing from his quiver an 
arrow of fourteen fists' length, and fitting it to the string, he shot it. 
The five-feet length of shaft leaped through the air, and, piercing the 
armor and flesh of the Taira bowman who reshot the first arrow, fell, 
spent, into the sea beyond. Elated with the lucky stroke, Yoshitsune 
emptied his quiver, shooting with such celerity and skill that many 
Taira fell. The Minamoto, encouraged, and roused to the highest 
pitch of enthusiasm, redoubled their exertions with oar and arrow, 
and the tide of victory turned. The white flag triumphed. Yet the 
Taira might have won the day had not treachery aided the foe. The 
pages of Japanese history teem with instances of the destruction of 
friends by traitors. Perhaps the annals of no other country are richer 
in the recitals of results gained by treachery. The Arnold of the Taira 
army was Shigeyoshi, friend to Yoshitsune. He had agreed upon a 
signal, by which the prize could be seen, and when seen could be sur- 
rounded and captured. Yoshitsune, eagerly scanning the Taira fleet, 
finally caught sight of the preconcerted signal, and ordered the cap- 
tains of a number of his junks to surround the particular one of the 
Taira. In a trice the junks of the white pennant shot along-side the 
devoted ship, and her decks were boarded by armed men. Seeing 
this, a Taira man leaped from his own boat to kill Yoshitsune in close 
combat. Yoshitsune jumped into another junk. His enemy, thus 
foiled, drowned himself. In the hand-to-hand fight with swords, To- 
momori and six other Taira leaders were slain. 

Seeing the hopeless state of affairs, and resolving not to be capt- 
ured alive, the nun, Kiyomori's widow, holding her grandson, the 
child emperor, in her arms, leaped into the sea. Taigo, the emperor's 
mother, vainly tried to save her child. Both were drowned. Mune- 
mori, head of the Taira house, and many nobles, gentlemen, and 
ladies, were made prisoners. 

The combat deepened. The Minamoto loved fighting. The Taira 
scorned to surrender. Revenge lent its maddening intoxication. 
Life, robbed of all its charms, gladly welcomed glorious death. The 
whizzing of arrows, the clash of two-handed swords, the clanging of 
armor, the sweep of churning oars, the crash of colliding junks, the 
wild song of the rowers, the shouts of the warriors, made the storm- 
chorus of battle. One after another the Taira ships, crushed by the 
prows of their opponents, or scuttled by the iron bolt-heads of the 



138 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Minamoto archers, sunk beneath the bubbling waters, leaving red whirl- 
pools of blood. Those that were boarded were swept with sword and 
spear of their human freight. The dead bodies clogged the decks, on 
which the mimic tides of blood ebbed and flowed and splashed with 
the motion of the waves, while the scuppers ran red like the spouts 
of an abattoir. The warriors who leaped into the sea became tar- 
gets for the avenger's arrows. Noble and peasant, woman and babe, 
rower and archer, lifting imploring arms, or sullenly spurning mercy, 
perished by hundreds. 

That May morning looked upon a blue sea laughing with unnum- 
bered ripples, and glinting with the steel of warriors decked in all 
the glory of battle-array, and flaunting with the gay pennants of the 
fleet which it seemed proud to bear. At night, heaving crimson like 
the vat of a dyer, defiled by floating corpses, and spewing its foul cor- 
ruption for miles along the strand, it bore awful though transient 
witness to the hate of man. 

The Taira, driven off the face of the earth, were buried with war's 
red burial beneath the sea, that soon forgot its stain, and laughed 
again in purity of golden gleam and deep-blue wave. The humble 
fisherman casting his nets, or trudging along the shore, in astonish- 
ment saw the delicate corpses of the court lady and the tiny babe, 
and the sun-bronzed bodies of rowers, cast upon the shore. The child 
who waded in the surf to pick up shells was frightened at the wave- 
rolled carcass of the dead warrior, from whose breast the feathered ar- 
row or the broken spear-stock protruded. The peasant, for many a 
day after, burned or consigned to the burial flames many a fair child 
whose silken dress and light skin told of higher birth and gentler 
blood than their own rude brood. 

Among a superstitious people dwelling by and on the sea, such an 
awful ingulfing of human life made a profound impression. The 
presence of so many thousand souls of dead heroes was overpowering. 
For years, nay, for centuries afterward, the ghosts of the Taira found 
naught but unrest in the sea in which their mortal bodies sunk. The 
sailor by day hurried with bated breath past the scene of slaughter 
and unsubstantial life. The mariner by night, unable to anchor, and 
driven by wind, spent the hours of darkness in prayer, while his vivid 
imagination converted the dancing phosphorescence into the white 
hosts of the Taira dead. Even to-day the Choshiu peasant fancies he 
sees the ghostly armies baling out the sea with bottomless dippers, 
condemned thus to cleanse the ocean of the stain of centuries ago. 



Y0RIT01I0 AND THE MINAMOTO FAMILY. 139 

A few of the Taira escaped and fled to Kiushiu. There, secluded 
in the fastnesses of deep valleys and high mountains, their descend- 
ants, who have kept themselves apart from their countrymen for near- 
ly seven hundred years, a few hundred in number, still live in poverty 
and pride. Their lurking-place was discovered only within the last 
century. Of the women spared from the massacre, some married 
their conquerors, some killed themselves, and others kept life in their 
defiled bodies by plying the trade in which beauty ever finds ready 
customers. At the present day, in Shimonoseki,* the courtesans de- 
scended from the Taira ladies claim, and are accorded, special privi- 
leges. 

The vengeance of the Minamoto did not stop at the sea. They 
searched every hill and valley to exterminate every male of the doom- 
ed clan. In Kioto many boys and infant sons of the Taira family 
were living. All that were found were put to death. The Herod of 
Kamakura sent his father-in-law to attend to the bloody business. 

In the Fourth month the army of Kamakura returned to Kioto, en- 
joying a public triumph, with their spoils and prisoners, retainers of 
the Taira. They had also recovered the sacred emblems. For days 
the streets of the capital were gay with processions and festivals, and 
the coffers of the temples were enriched with the pious offerings of 
the victors, and their walls with votive tablets of gratitude. 

Munemori was sent to Kamakura, where he saw the man whose 
head his father had charged him on his death-bed to cut off and hang 
on his tomb. His own head was shortly afterward severed from his 
body by the guards who were conducting him to Kioto. 

* Shimonoseki is a town of great commercial importance, from its position at 
the entrance of the Inland Sea. It consists chiefly of one long street of two 
miles, at the base of a range of low steep hills. It lies four miles from the west- 
ern entrance of Hayato no selo, or strait of Shimonoseki. The strait is from 
two thousand to five thousand feet wide, and about seven miles long. Mutsure 
Island (incorrectly printed as "Rockuren" on foreign charts) lies near the en- 
trance. On Hiku Island, and at the eastern end of the strait, are light-houses 
equipped according to modern scientific requirements. Four beacons, also, light 
the passage at night. The current is very strong. A submarine telegraphic ca- 
ble now connects the electric wires of Nagasaki, from Siberia to St. Petersburg; 
.and of Shanghae (China) to London and New York, with those of Tokio and Ha- 
kodate - . On a ledge of rocks in the channel is a monument in honor of Antoku, 
the young emperor who perished here in the arms of his grandmother, Tokiko, 
the Nil no ama, a title composed of Mi, noble of the second rank, and ama, nun, 
equal to "the noble nun of the second rank." 



140 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XIV. 

CREATION OF THE DUAL SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT 

Meanwhile Yoritomo was strengthening his power at Kamakura. 
and initiating that dual system of government which has puzzled sc 
many modern writers on Japan, and has given rise to the supposition 
that Japan had " two emperors, one temporal, the other spiritual." 

The country at this time was distracted with the disturbances of 
the past few years; robbers were numerous, and the Buddhist mon- 
asteries were often nests of soldiers. Possessed of wealth, arms, ana 
military equipments, the bonzes were ever ready to side with the par- 
ty that pleased them. The presence of such men and institutions 
rendered it difficult for any one ruler to preserve tranquillity, since it 
was never known at what moment these professedly peaceful men 
would turn out as trained bands of military warriors. To restore or- 
der, prosperity, revenue, and firm government was now the professed 
wish of Yoritomo. He left the name and honor of government at 
Kioto. He kept the reality in Kamakura in his own hands, and for 
his own family. 

In 1184, while his capital was rapidly becoming a magnificent city, 
he created the Mandokoro, or Council of State, at which all the gov- 
ernment affairs of the Kuanto were discussed, and through which the 
administration of the government was carried on. The officers of the 
Internal Revenue Department in Kioto, seeing which way the tide of 
power was flowing, had previously come to Kamakura bringing the 
records of the department, and became subject to Yoritomo's orders. 
Thus the first necessity, revenue, was obtained. A criminal tribunal 
was also established, especially for the trial of the numerous robbers, 
as well as for ordinary cases. He permitted all who had objections 
to make or improvements to suggest to send in their petitions. He 
requested permission of the mikado to reward all who had performed 
meritorious actions, and to disarm the priests, and to confiscate their 
war materials. These requests, urged on the emperor in the interest 
of good government, were no sooner granted, and the plans executed, 



CREATION OF TEE DUAL SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. 141 

than the news of the destruction of the Taira family at Dan no ura 
was received. Then Yoritomo prayed the mikado that five men of 
his family name might be made governors of provinces. The peti- 
tion was granted, and Yoshitsune was made governor of Iyo by spe- 
cial decree. 

Here may be distinctly seen the first great step toward the military 
government that lasted nearly seven centuries. 

The name of the shogun's government, and used especially by its 
opposers, was bakufu — literally, curtain government, because anciently 
in China, as in Japan, a curtain (baku) surrounded the tent or head- 
quarters of the commanding general. Bakufu, like most technical 
military terms in Japan, is a Chinese word. 

The appointing of five military men as governors of provinces was 
a profound innovation in Japanese governmental affairs. Hitherto it 
had been the custom to appoint only civilians from the court to those 
offices. It does not appear, however, that Yoritomo at first intended 
to seize the military control of the whole empire ; but his chief min- 
ister, Oye no Hiromoto, president of the Council of State, conceived 
another plan which, when carried out, as it afterward was, threw all 
real power in Yoritomo's hands. As the Kuanto was tranquil and 
prosperous under vigorous government, and as the Kuanto troops 
were used to put down rebels elsewhere, he proposed that in all the 
circuits and provinces of the empire a special tax should be levied 
for the support of troops in those places. By this means a permanent 
force could be kept, by which the peace of the empire could be main- 
tained without the expense and trouble of calling out the Eastern 
army. Also— and here was another step to military government and 
feudalism — that a shiugo — a military chief, should be placed in each 
province, dividing the authority with the kokushiu, or civil governor, 
and a jito, to be appointed from Kamakura, should rule jointly with 
rulers of small districts, called shoyen. Still further — another step 
in feudalism — he proposed that his own relations who had perform- 
ed meritorious service in battle should fill these offices, and that they 
should all be under his control from Kamakura. This was done, and 
Yoritomo thus acquired the governing power of all Japan. 

It seems, at first sight, strange that the mikado and his court should 
i^rant these propositions ; yet they did so. They saw the Kuanto — 
half the empire — tranquil under the strong military government of 
Yoritomo. Hojo, his father-in-law, was commanding the garrison at 
Kioto. The mikado, Gotoba, may be said to have owed his throne to 

10 



142 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Yoritomo, whose ancestors had conquered, almost added to the realm, 
all the extreme Northern and Eastern parts of Japan. This portion, 
merely tributary before, was now actually settled and governed like 
the older parts of the empire. 

In 1180, Yoritomo made a campaign in that part of Japan north of 
the thirty-seventh parallel, then called Mutsu and Dewa. On his re- 
turn, being now all - victorious, he visited the court at Kioto. The 
quondam exile was now the foremost subject in the empire. His re- 
ception and treatment by the reigning and cloistered emperors were in 
the highest possible scale of magnificence. The splendor of his own 
retinue astonished even the old courtiers, accustomed to the gay pag- 
eants of the capital. They could scarcely believe that such wealth ex- 
isted and such knowledge of the art of display was cultivated in the 
Kuanto. Military shows, athletic games, and banquets were held for 
many days, and the costliest presents exchanged, many of which are 
still shown at Kamakura and Kioto. Yoritomo returned, clothed 
with the highest honor, and with vastly greater jurisdiction than had 
ever been intrusted to a subject. With all the civil functions ever 
held by the once rival Fujiwara, he united in himself more military 
power than a Taira had ever wielded. 

In 1192, he attained to the climax of honor, when the mikado ap- 
pointed him Sei-i Tai Shogun (Barbarian-subjugating Great General), a 
title and office that existed until 1868. Henceforth the term shogun 
came to have a new significance. Anciently all generals were called 
shoguns ; but, with new emphasis added to the name, the shogun ac- 
quired more and more power, until foreigners supposed him to be a 
sovereign. Yet this subordinate from first to last — from 1194 until 
1868 — was a general only, and a military vassal of the emperor. 
Though he governed the country with a strong military hand, he did 
it as a vassal, in the name and for the sake of the mikado at Kioto. 

Peace now reigned in Japan. The soldier-ruler at Kamakura spent 
the prime of his life in consolidating his power, expecting to found a 
family that should rule for many generations. He encouraged hunt- 
ing on Mount Fuji, and sports calculated to foster a martial spirit in 
the enervating times of peace. In 1195, he made another visit to 
Kioto, staying four months. Toward the end of 1198, he had a fall 
from his horse, and died early in 1199. He was fifty-three years old, 
and had ruled fifteen years. 

Yoritomo is looked upon as one of the ablest rulers and greatest 
generals that ever lived in Japan. Yet, while all acknowledge his 



CREATION OF THE DUAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 143 

consummate ability, many regard him as a cruel tyrant, and a heart- 
less and selfish man. His treatment of his two brothers, Noriyori 
and Yoshitsune, are evidences that this opinion is too well founded. 
Certain it is that the splendor of Yoritomo's career has never blinded 
the minds of posterity to his selfishness and cruelty ; and though, like 
Napoleon, he has had his eulogists, yet the example held up for the 
imitation of youth is that of Yoshitsune, and not Yoritomo. Mori 
says of the latter : "He encouraged each of his followers to believe 
himself the sole confidant of his leader's schemes, and in this cunning 
manner separated their interests, and made them his own. Nearly all 
of those around him who became possible rivals in power or populari- 
ty were cruelly handled when he had exhausted the benefit of their 
service." His simple tomb stands at the top of a knoll on the slope 
of hills a few hundred yards distant from the great temple at Kama- 
kura, overlooking the fields on which a mighty city once rose, when 
called into being by his genius and energy, which flourished for cent- 
uries, and disappeared, to allow luxuriant Nature to again assert her 
sway. The rice-swamps and the millet-fields now cover the former 
sites of his proudest palaces. Where metropolitan splendor and lux- 
ury once predominated, the irreverent tourist bandies his jests, or the 
toiling farmer stands knee-deep in the fertile ooze, to win from classic 
soil his taxes and his daily food. 

The victory over the Taira was even greater than Yoritomo had 
supposed possible. Though exulting in the results, he burned with 
jealousy that Yoshitsune had the real claim to the honor of victory. 
While in this mood, there were not wanting men to poison his mind, 
and fan the suspicions into fires of hate. There was one Kajiwara, 
who had been a military adviser to the expedition to destroy the Taira. 
On one occasion, Yoshitsune advised a night attack in full force on 
the enemy. Kajiwara opposed the project, and hindered it. Yoshi- 
tsune, with only fifty men, carried out his plan, and, to the chagrin 
and disgrace of Kajiwara, he won a brilliant victory. This man, in- 
censed at his rival, and consuming with wrath, hied to Yoritomo with 
tales and slanders, which the jealous brother too willingly believed. 
Yoshitsune, returning as a victor, and with the spoils for his brother, 
received peremptory orders not to enter Kamakura, but to remain 
in the village of Koshigoye, opposite the isle of Enoshima. While 
there, he wrote a touching letter, recounting all his toils and dangers 
while pursuing the Taira, and appealing for clearance of his name 
from slander and suspicion. It was sent to Oye no Hiromoto, chief 



144 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

councilor of Yoritomo, whom Yoshitsune begged to intercede to his 
brother for him. This letter, still extant, and considered a model of 
filial and fraternal affection, is taught by parents to their children. It 
is among the most pathetic writings in Japanese literature, and is 
found in one of the many popular collections of famous letters. 

Wearying of waiting in the suburbs of the city, Yoshitsune went to 
Kioto. Yoritomo's troops, obeying orders, attacked his house to kill 
him. He fled, with sixteen retainers, into Yamato. There he was 
again attacked, but escaped and fled. He now determined to go to 
Oshiu, to his old friend Hidehira. He took the route along the west 
coast, through Echizen, Kaga, and Echigo, and found a refuge, as he 
supposed, with Hidehira. The spies of his brother soon discovered 
his lurking-place, and ordered him to be put to death. The son of 
Hidehira attacked him. According to popular belief, Yoshitsune, afk 
er killing his wife and children with his own hands, committed hara- 
kiri. His head, preserved in sake, was sent to Kamakura. 

The exact truth concerning the death of Yoshitsune is by no means 
yet ascertained. It is declared by some that he escaped and fled to 
Yezo, where he lived among the Ainos for many years, and died 
among them, either naturally or by hara-kiri. The Ainos have a 
great reverence for his deeds, and to this day worship his spirit, and 
over his grave in Hitaka they have erected a shrine. Others assert 
that he fled to Asia, and became the great conqueror, Genghis Khan.* 
Concerning this last, a Japanese student once remarked, " Nothing 
but the extraordinary vanity of the Japanese people could originate 
such a report." 

* In a Chinese book called Seppu, a collection of legends and historical mis- 
cellanies, published in China, it is stated that Genghis Khan was one Yoshitsu- 
ne, who came from Japan. The Chinese form of Minamoto Yoshitsune is Gen 
Gike. He was also called, after his reputed death, Temujin (or Tenjin). As is 
well known, the Mongol conqueror's name was originally, on his first appear- 
ance, Temujin. The Japanese Ainos have also apotheosized Yoshitsune under 
the title Hanguan Dai Mio Jin — Great Illustrious Lawgiver. Yoshitsune was 
born in 1159 ; he was thirty years old at the time of his reputed death. Genghis 
Khan was born, according to the usually received data, in 1160, and died 1227. If 
Gen Gike and Genghis Khan, or Gengis Kan, were identical, the hero had thirty- 
eight years for his achievements. Genghis Khan was born, it is said, with his 
hand full of blood. Obeying the words of a shaman (inspired seer), he took the 
name Genghis (greatest), and called his people Mongols (bold). The conquest of 
the whole earth was promised him. He and his sons subjugated China and Co- 
rea, overthrew the caliphate of Bagdad, and extended the Mongolian empire as 
fir as the Oder and the Danube. They attempted to conquer Japan, as we shall 
see in the chapter headed " The Invasion of the Mongol Tartars." 



CREATION OF THE DUAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 145 

Nevertheless, the immortality of Yoshitsune is secured. Worshiped 
as a god by the Ainos, honored and beloved by every Japanese youth 
as an ideal hero of chivalry, his features pictured on boys' kites, his 
mien and form represented in household effigies displayed annually 
at the boys' great festival of flags, glorified in art, song, and story, 
Yoshitsune, the hero warrior and martyr, will live in unfading memo- 
ry so long as the ideals of the warlike Japanese stand unshattered or 
their traditions are preserved.* 

* The struggles of the rival houses of Gen and Hei form an inexhaustible mine 
of incidents to the playwright, author, poet, and artist. I can not resist the 
temptation of giving one of these in this place. The artist's representation of 
it adorns many a Japanese house. At the siege of Ichinotani, a famous captain, 
named Naozane, who fought under the white flag, while in camp one day invest- 
ing the Taira forces, saw a boat approach the beach fronting the fort. Shortly 
after, a Taira soldier rode out of the castle-gate into the waves to embark. Nao- 
zane saw, by the splendid crimson armor and golden helmet of the rider, that he 
was a Taira noble. Here was a prize indeed, the capture of which would make 
the Kuanto captain a general. Naozane thundered out the challenge : " Do my 
eyes deceive me? Is he a Taira leader ; and is he such a coward that he shows 
his back to the eye of his enemy? Come back and fight!" The rider was in- 
deed a Taira noble, young Atsumori, only sixteen years of age, of high and gen- 
tle birth, and had been reared in the palace. Naozane was a bronzed veteran of 
forty years. Both charged each other on horseback, with swords drawn. After 
a few passes, Naozane flung away his sword, and, unarmed, rushed to grasp his 
foe. Not yet to be outdone in gallantry, Atsumori did the same. Both clinched 
while in the saddle, and fell to the sand, the old campaigner uppermost. He 
tore off the golden helmet, and, to his amazement, saw the pale, smooth face and 
noble mien of a noble boy that looked just like his own beloved son of the same 
age. The father was more than the soldier. The victor trembled with emotion. 
1,1 How wretched the life of a warrior to have to kill such a lovely boy ! How 
miserable will those parents be who find their darling is in an enemy's hand! 
Wretched me, that I thought to destroy this life for the sake of reward !" He 
theu resolved to let his enemy go secretly away, and make his escape. At that 
moment a loud voice shouted angrily, " Naozane is double-hearted: he captures 
an enemy, and then thinks to let him escape." Thus compelled, Naozane" steeled 
his heart, took up his sword, and cut off Atsumori' s head. He carried the bloody 
trophy to Yoshitsune, and, while all stood admiring and ready to applaud, Nao- 
zane refused all reward, and, to the amazement of his chief and the whole camp, 
begged leave to resign. Doffing helmet, armor, and sword, he shaved off his 
hair, and became a disciple of the holy bonze Houen, learned the doctrines of 
Buddha, and, becoming profoundly versed in the sacred lore, he resolved to spend 
the remnant of his days in a monastery. He set out for the Kuanto, riding with 
his face to the tail of the animal, but in the direction of paradise. Some one 
asked him why he rode thus. He replied, 

"In the Clear Land, perchance they're me reputing 
A warrior brave, 
Because I turn my back, refusing 

Fame, once so dear." 



146 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XV. 

THE GLORY AND THE FALL OF THE HO JO FAMILY. 

Though there may be some slight justification of Yoritomo's set 
ting up a dual system of government to control and check the in- 
trigues of courtiers at Kioto, yet at best it was a usurpation of the 
power belonging only to the mikado. The creation of a duarchy was 
the swift and sure result of Japan having no foreign enemies. 

So long as the peace or existence of the empire was threatened by 
the savages on the frontier, or by invading fleets on the sea-coast, 
there was an impelling cause to bind together the throne and people ; 
but when the barbarians were tranquilized, China and Corea gave no 
signs of war ; and especially when the nobility were divided into the 
civil and military classes, and the mikado was no longer a man of 
physical and mental vigor, a division of the governing power natural- 
ly arose. 

From the opening of the thirteenth century, the course of Japanese 
history flows in two streams. There were now two capitals, Kioto 
and Kamakura, and two centres of authority : one, the lawful but 
overawed emperor and the imperial court ; the other, the military vas- 
sal, and a government based on the power of arms. It must never be 
forgotten, however, that the fountain of authority was in Kioto, the 
ultimate seat of power in the ancient constitution. Throughout the 
centuries the prestige of the mikado's person never declined. The 
only conditions under which it was possible for this division of po- 
litical power to exist was the absence of foreigners from the soil of 
Japan. So soon as Japan entered into political relations with outside 
nations, which would naturally seek the real source of power, the du- 
archy was doomed. 

When Yoritomo died, all men wondered whether the power would 
remain at Kamakura, the country rest peaceful, and his successors 
reign with ability. The Japanese have a proverb conveying a bitter 
truth, learned from oft-repeated experience, "Taisho ni tane ga nashV 
(The general has no child, or, There is no seed to a great man). The 



THE GLORY AND FALL OF THE HOJO FAMILY. 147 

spectacle of a great house decaying through the inanity or supineness 
of sons is constantly repeated in their history. The theme also forms 
the basis of their standard novels. Yoritomo's sons, not inheriting 
their father's ability, failed to wield his personal power of administra- 
tion. From the day of his death, it may be said that the glory of 
the Minamoto family declined, while that of the Ho jo began. 

Yet it seemed strange that the proverb should be verified in this 
case. Yoritomo had married no ordinary female. His wife, Masago, 
was a woman of uncommon intellectual ability, who had borne him a 
son, Yoriiye. This young man, who was eighteen years old at his 
father's death, was ^immediately appointed chief of all the military 
officers in the empire, and it was expected he would equal his father 
in military prowess and administrative skill. His mother, Masago, 
though a shorn nun, who had professed retirement from the world, 
continued to take a very active part in the government. 

The parental authority and influence in Japan, as in China, is often 
far greater than that of any other. Not even death or the marriage 
relation weakens, to any great extent, the hold of a father on a child. 
With affection on the one hand, and cunning on the other, an un- 
scrupulous father may do what he will. We have seen how the Fuji- 
wara and Taira families controlled court, throne, and emperor, by mar- 
rying their daughters to infant or boy mikados. We shall now find 
the Hojo dispensing the power at Kamakura by means of a crafty 
woman willing to minister to her father's rather than to her son's 
aggrandizement. 

Hojo Tokimasa was the father of Masago, wife of Yoritomo. The 
latter always had great confidence in and respect for the abilities of 
his father-in-law. At his death, Tokimasa became chief of the coun- 
cil of state. Instead of assisting and training Yoriiye in government 
affairs, giving him the benefit of his experience, and thus enabling 
the son to tread in his father's footsteps, he would not allow Yori iye 
to hear cases in person, or to take active share in public business. 
When the youth plunged into dissipation and idleness, which termi- 
nated in a vicious course of life, his mother often reproved him, 
while Tokimasa, doubtless rejoicing over the fact, pretended to know 
nothing of the matter. All this time, however, he was filling the of- 
fices of government, not with the Minamoto adherents, but with his 
own kindred and partisans. Nepotism in Japan is a science; but 
cursed as the Japanese have been, probably none exceeded in this 
subtle craft the master, Tokimasa ; though Yoriiye, receiving his fa- 



148 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

tlier's office, had been appointed Sei-i Tai Shogun, with the rank ju- 
ni-i (second division of the second rank), his grandfather still kept 
the real power. When twenty-two years of age, while he was suffer- 
ing from sickness — probably the result of his manner of life — his 
mother and Tokimasa, who instigated her, attempted to compel him 
to resign his office, and to give the superintendency of the provincial 
governors to his infant son, and set over the Kuansei, or Western 
Japan, his younger brother, aged twelve years. This was the old 
trick of setting up boys and babies on the nominal seat of power, in 
order that crafty subordinates might rule. 

Yoriiye heard of this plan, and resolved to avert its execution. He 
failed, and, as is usual in such cases, was compelled to shave off his 
hair, as a sign that his interest in political affairs had ceased. He 
was exiled to a temple in Idzu. There he was strangled, while in his 
bath, by the hired assassins sent by Tokimasa. 

Sanetomo, brother of Yoriiye, succeeded in office. The boy was 
but twelve years old, and very unlike his father. He cared nothing 
for hunting or military exercises. His chief occupation was in play- 
ing foot-ball — a very mild game, compared with that played in this 
country — and composing poetry. His time was spent with fair girls 
and women, of whom he had as many as he wished. All this was in 
accordance with the desire and plans of the Ho jo family, who mean- 
while wielded all power. Sanetomo lived his luxuriant life in the 
harem, the bath, and the garden, until twenty-eight years old. Mean- 
while, Kugio, the son of Yoriiye, who had been made a priest, grew 
up, and had always looked upon Sanetomo, instead of Tokimasa, as 
his father's murderer. One night as Sanetomo was returning from 
worship at the famous shrine of Tsurugaoka — the unusual hour of 
nine having been chosen by the diviners — Kugio leaped out from be- 
hind a staircase, cut off Sanetomo's head, and made off with it, but 
was himself beheaded by a soldier sent after him. The main line of 
the Minamoto family was now extinct. Thus, in the very origin and 
foundation of the line of shoguns, the same fate befell them as in 
the case of the emperors — the power wielded by an illustrious ances- 
tor, when transferred to descendants, was lost. A nominal ruler sat 
on the throne, while a wire-puller behind directed every movement. 
This is the history of every line of shoguns that ruled from the first, 
in 1196, until the last, in 1868. 

The usurpation of the Hojo was a double usurpation. Properly, 
they were vassals of the shogun, who was himself a vassal of the mi- 



THE GLORY AND FALL OF THE HO JO FAMILY. 149 

kado. It must not be supposed that the emperor at Kioto calmly 
looked on, caring for none of these things at Kamakura. The meshes 
of the Minamoto had been woven completely round the imperial au- 
thority. Now the Ho jo, like a new spider, was spinning a more fatal 
thread, sucking from the emperor, as from a helpless fly, the life- 
blood of power. 

The Ho jo family traced their descent from the mikado Kuammu 
(782-805) through Sadamori, a Taira noble, from whom Tokimasa 
was the seventh in descent. Their ancestors had settled at Hojo, in 
Idzu, whence they took their name. While the Minamoto rose to 
power, the Hojo assisted them, and, by intermarriage, the two clans 
had become closely attached to each other. 

The names of the twelve rulers, usually reckoned as seven genera- 
tions, were : Tokimasa, Yoshitoki, Yasutoki, Tsunetoki, Tokiyori, Masa- 
toki, Tokimune, Sadatoki, Morotoki, Hirotoki, Takatoki, and Moritoki. 
Of these, the third, fourth, and fifth were the ablest, and most de- 
voted to public business. It was on the strength of their merit and 
fame that their successors were so long able to hold power. Yasu- 
toki established two councils, the one with legislative and executive, 
and the other with judicial powers. Both were representative of the 
wishes of the people. He promulgated sixty regulations in respect to 
the method of judicature. This judicial record is of great value to 
the historian; and long afterward, in 1534, an edition of Yasuto- 
ki's laws, in one volume, with a commentary, was published. In later 
times it has been in popular use as a copy-book for children. He 
also took an oath before the assembly to maintain the same with 
equity, swearing by the gods of Japan, saying, " We stand as judges 
of the whole country ; if we be partial in our judgments, may the 
Heavenly Gods punish us." In his private life he was self-abnegative 
and benevolent, a polite and accomplished scholar, loving the society 
of the learned. Tsunetoki faithfully executed the laws, and carried 
out the policy of his predecessor. Tokiyori, before he became regent, 
traveled, usually in disguise, all over the empire, to examine into the 
details of local administration, and to pick out able men, so as to put 
them in office when he should need their services. In his choice he 
made no distinction of rank. Among the upright men he elevated to 
the judges' bench was the Awodo, who, for conscientious reasons, never 
wore silk garments, nor a lacquered scabbard to his sword, nor ever 
held a bribe in his hand. He was the terror of venal officials, injustice 
and bribery being known to him as if by sorcery ; while every detected 



150 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

culprit was sure to be disgracefully cashiered. Ho jo Akitoki estab- 
lished a library, consisting of Chinese, Confucian, Buddhistic, and na- 
tive literature, at Kanazawa, in Sagami. Here scholars gathered, 
and students flocked, to hear their lectures and to study the classics, 
or the tenets of the faith, nearly all the learned men of this period 
being priests. While the writer of the Guai Shi attacks the Ho jo for 
their usurpations, he applauds them for their abilities and excellent, 
administration. 

The line of shoguns who nominally ruled from 1199 to 1333 were 
merely their creatures; and that period of one hundred and forty 
years, including seven generations, may be called the period of the 
Hojo. The political history of these years is but that of a monoto- 
nous recurrence of the exaltation of boys and babies of noble blood, 
to whom was given the semblance of power, who were sprinkled with 
titles, and deposed as soon as they were old enough to be trouble- 
some. None of the Hojo ever seized the office of Shogun, but in 
reality they wielded all and more of the power attaching to the office, 
under the title of shikken. It was an august game of state-craft, in 
which little children with colossal names were set up like nine-pins, 
and bowled down as suited the playful fancies of subordinates who 
declined name and titles, and kept the reality of power. The count- 
ers were neglected, while the prize was won. 

After the line of Yoritomo became extinct, Yoritomo's widow, Ma- 
sago, requested of the imperial court at Kioto that Yoritsune, a Fuji- 
wara baby two years old, should be made shdgun. The Fujiwara no- 
bles were glad to have even a child of their blood elevated to a posi- 
tion in which, when grown, he might have power. The baby came 
to Kamakura. He cast the shadow of authority twenty-five years, 
when he was made to resign, in 1244, in favor of his own baby boy, 
Yoshitsugu, six years old. This boy-shogun when fourteen years old, 
in 1252, was deposed by Hojo Tokiyori, and sent back to Kioto. 
Tired of the Fujiwara scions, the latter then obtained as shogun a 
more august victim, the boy Munetaka, a son of the emperor Go-Saga, 
who after fourteen years fell ill, in 1266, with that very common Jap- 
anese disease — official illness. He was probably compelled to feign 
disease. His infant son, three years of age, was then set up, and, 
when twenty-three years of age (1289), was bowled down by Hojo 
Sadatoki, who sent him in disgrace, heels upward, in a palanquin to 
Kioto. Hisaakira, the third son of the emperor Gk> - Fukakusa, was 
set up as shogun in 1289. The Hojo bowled down this fresh dum- 



THE GLORY AND FALL OF THE HO JO FAMILY. 151 

my in 1308, and put up Morikuni, his eldest son. This was the last sho- 
gun of imperial blood. The game of the players was now nearly over. 

The ex-emperor, Gotoba, made a desperate effort to drive the usurp- 
ing Hojo from power. A small and gallant army was raised ; fighting 
took place ; but the handful of imperial troops was defeated by the 
overwhelming hosts sent from Kamakura. Their victory riveted the 
chains upon the imperial family. To the arrogant insolence of the 
usurper was now added the cruelty of the conscious tyrant. 

Never before had such outrageous deeds been committed, or such 
insults been heaped upon the sovereigns as were done by these up- 
starts at Kamakura. Drunk with blood and exultation, the Hojo 
wreaked their vengeance on sovereign and subject alike. Banish- 
ment and confiscation were the order of their day. The ex-emperor 
was compelled to shave off his hair, and was exiled to the island of 
Oki. The reigning mikado was deposed, and sent to Sado. Two 
princes of the blood were banished to Tajima and Bizen. The ex-em- 
peror Tsuchimikado — there were now three living emperors — not 
willing to dwell in palace luxury while his brethren were in exile, ex- 
pressed a wish to share their fate. He was sent to Awa. To com- 
plete the victory and the theft of power, the Hojo chief Yasutoki 
confiscated the estates of all who had fought on the emperor's side, 
and distributed them among his own minions. Over three thousand 
fiefs were thus disposed of. No camp-followers ever stripped a dead 
hero's body worse than these human vultures tore from the lawful 
sovereign the last fragment of authority. All over Japan the patriots 
heard, with groans of despair, the slaughter of the loyal army, and the 
pitiful fate of their emperors. The imperial exile died in Sado of a 
broken heart. A nominal mikado at Kioto, and a nominal shogun at 
Kamakura, were set up, but the Hojo were the keepers of both. 

The later days of the Hojo present a spectacle of tyranny and mis- 
government such as would disgrace the worst Asiatic bureaucracy. 
The distinguished and able men such as at first shed lustre on the 
name of this family were no more. The last of them were given to 
luxury and carousal, and the neglect of public business. A horde of 
rapacious officials sucked the life-blood and paralyzed the energies of 
the people. To obtain means to support themselves in luxury, they 
increased the weight of taxes, that ever crushes the spirit of the Asi- 
atic peasant. Their triple oppression, of mikado, shogun, and people, 
became intolerable. The handwriting was on the wall. Their day* 
were numbered. 



152 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

In 1327, Moriyoshi, son of the Emperor Go-Daigo, began to mature 
plans for the recovery of imperial power. By means of the ubiqui- 
tous spies, and through treachery, his schemes were revealed, and he 
was only saved from punishment from Ho jo by being ordered by his 
father to retire into a Buddhist monastery. This was ostensibly to 
show that he had given up all interest in worldly affairs. In reality, 
however, he assisted his father in planning the destruction of Hojo. 
He lived at Oto, and was called, by the people, Oto no miya. The 
Emperor Go-Daigo, though himself put on the throne by the king- 
makers at Kamakura, chafed under the galling dictatorship of those 
who were by right his vassals. He resolved to risk life, and all that 
was dear to him, to overthrow the dual system, and establish the orig- 
inal splendor and prestige of the mikadoate. He knew the reverence 
of the people for the throne would sustain him, could he but raise suf- 
ficient military force to reduce the Hojo. 

He secured the aid of the Buddhist priests and, in, 1330, fortified 
Kasagi, in Yamato. Kusunoki Masashige about the same time arose 
in Kawachi, making it the aim of his life to restore the mikadoate. 
The next year Hojo sent an army against Kasagi, attacked and burned 
it. The emperor was taken prisoner, and banished to Oki. Ku- 
sunoki, though twice besieged, escaped, and lived to win immortal 
fame. 

Connected with this mikado's sad fate is one incident of great 
dramatic interest, which has been enshrined in Japanese art, besides 
finding worthy record in history. While Go-Daigo was on his way 
to banishment, borne in a palanquin, under guard of the soldiers 
of Hojo, Kojima Takanori attempted to rescue his sovereign. This 
young nobleman was the third son of the lord of Bingo, who occupied 
his hereditary possessions in Bizen. Setting out with a band of re- 
tainers to intercept the convoy and to release the imperial prisoner, at 
the hill of Funasaka he waited patiently for the train to approach, 
finding, when too late, that he had occupied the wrong pass. Has- 
tening to the rear range of hills, they learned that the objects of their 
search had already gone by. Kojima's followers, being now disheart- 
ened, returned, leaving him alone. He, however, cautious-, followed 
on, and for several days attempted in vain to approach the palanquin 
and whisper a word of hope in the ear of the imperial exile. The 
vigilance of the Hojo vassals rendering all succor hopeless, Kojima 
hit upon a plan that baffled his enemies and lighted hope in the bosom 
of the captive. Secretly entering the garden of the inn at which the 



THE GLORY AND FALL OF THE HO JO FAMILY. 



153 



party was resting at night, Kojima scraped off the bark of a cherry- 
tree, and wrote in ink, on the inner white membrane, this poetic stanza, 

"Ten Kosen wo horobosu nakare 
Tokini Hanrei naki ni shimo aradzu." 

(O Heaven ! destroy not Kosen, 
While Hanrei still lives.) 

The allusion, couched in delicate phrase, is to Kosen, an ancient king 
in China, who was dethroned and made prisoner, but was afterward 
restored to honor and power by the faithfulness and valor of his re- 
tainer, Hanrei. 

fiwM 




Kojima Writing on the Cherry-tree. (Vignette upon the greenback national-bauk notes.) 

The next morning, the attention of the soldiers was excited by the 
fresh handwriting on the tree. As none of them were able to read, 
they showed it to the Emperor Go-Daigo, who read the writing, and its 
significance, in a moment. Concealing his joy, he went to banish- 
ment, keeping hope alive during his loneliness. He knew that he 
was not forgotten by his faithful vassals. Kojima afterward fought to 
restore the mikado, and perished on the battle-field. The illustration 
given above is borrowed from a picture by a native artist, which now 
adorns the national-bank notes issued under the reign of the present 
mikado. 



154 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

This darkest "hour of the mikado's fortune preceded the dawn. 
Already a hero was emerging from obscurity who was destined to be 
the destroyer of Kamakura and the Hojo. This was Nitta Yoshisada. 

The third son of Minamoto Yoshi-iye, born a.d. 1057, had two 
sons. The elder son succeeded his father to the fief of Nitta, in the 
province of Kodzuke. The second inherited from his adopted father 
Tawara, the fief of Ashikaga, in Shimotsuke. Both these sons found- 
ed families which took their name from their place of hereditary pos- 
session. At this period, four hundred years later, their illustrious de- 
scendants became conspicuous. Nitta Yoshisada, a captain in the 
army of Hojo, had been sent to besiege Kusunoki, one of the mika- 
do's faithful vassals ; but, refusing to fight against the imperial forces, 
Nitta deserted with his command. He sent his retainer to Oto no 
iniya, son of the emperor, then hiding in the mountains, who gave 
him a commission in the name of his exiled father. Nitta immediate- 
ly returned to his native place, collected all his retainers, and before 
the shrine of the village raised the standard of revolt against Hojo. 
His banner was a long white pennant, crossed near the top by two 
black bars, beneath which was a circle bisected with a black zone. 
Adopting the plan of attack proposed by his brother, and marching 
down into Sagami, he appeared at Inamura Saki, on the outskirts of 
Kamakura, in thirteen days after raising his banner as the mikado's 
vassal. 

At this point, where the road from Kamakura to Enoshima strikes 
the beach, a splendid panorama breaks upon the vision of the be- 
holder. In front is the ocean, with its rolling waves and refreshing 
salt breeze. To the south, in imposing proportions, and clothed in 
the blue of distance, is the island of Oshima; and farther on are the 
mountains of the peninsula of Idzu. To the right emerges, fair and 
lovely, in perpetual green, the island of Enoshima. Landward is the 
peak of Oyama, with its satellites ; but, above all, in full magnificence 
of proportion, stands Fuji, the lordly mountain. Here Nitta perform- 
ed an act that has become immortal in song and poem, and the artist's 
colors. 

On the eve before the attack, Nitta, assembling his host at the 
edge of the strand, and removing his helmet, thus addressed his war- 
riors : " Our heavenly son (mikado) has been deposed by his traitor- 
ous subject, and is now in distant exile in the Western Sea, I, Yoshi- 
sada, being unable to look upon this act unmoved, have raised an 
army to punish the thieves yonder. I humbly pray thee, God of 



THE GLORY AND FALL OF THE HO JO FAMILY. 155 

the Sea, to look into my loyal heart ; command the tide to ebb and 
open a path." Thus saying, he bowed reverently, and then, as Rai 
says, with his head bare (though the artist has overlooked the state- 
ment), and in the sight of heaven cast his sword into the waves as a 
prayer-offering to the gods that the waves might recede, in token of 
their righteous favor. The golden hilt gleamed for a moment in the 
air, and the sword sunk from sight. The next morning the tide had 
ebbed, the strand was dry, and the army, headed by the chief whom 
the soldiers now looked upon as the chosen favorite of Heaven, marched 




Nitta Yoshisada casting the Sword into the Sea. (Vignette from the national -bank 

notes.) 

resistlessly on. Kamakura was attacked from three sides. The fight- 
ing was severe and bloody, but victory everywhere deserted the ban- 
ners of the traitors, and rested upon the pennons of the loyal. Nitta, 
after performing great feats of valor in person, finally set the city on 
fire, and in a few hours Kamakura was a waste of ashes. 

Just before the final destruction of the city, a noble named Ando, 
vassal of the house of Hoj5, on seeing the ruin around him, the sol- 
diers slaughtered, and the palaces burned, remarking that for a hun- 
dred years no instance of a retainer dying for his lord had been 
known, resolved to commit hara-kiri. The wife of Nitta was hi9 
niece. Just as he was about to plunge his dirk into his body, a serv- 



156 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ant handed him a letter from her, begging him to surrender. The old 
man indignantly exclaimed : " My niece is the daughter of a samurai 
house. Why did she make so shameless a request ? And Mtta, her 
husband, is a samurai. Why did he allow her to do so ?" He then 
took the letter, wrapped it round his sword, which he plunged into 
his body, and died. A great number of vassals of Ho jo did likewise. 

While Nitta was fighting at Kamakura, and thus overthrowing the 
Ho jo power in the East, Ashikaga Takauji had drawn sword in Kioto, 
and with Kusunoki re-established the imperial rule in the West. The 
number of the doomed clan who were slain in battle, or who commit- 
ted hara-kiri, as defeated soldiers, in accordance with the code of honor 
already established, is set down at six thousand eight hundred. 

All over the empire the people rose up against their oppressors and 
massacred them. The Ho jo domination, which had been paramount 
for nearly one hundred and fifty years, was utterly broken. 

From a.d. 1219 until 1333, the mikados at Kioto were: 

Juntoku 1211-1221 

Chiukio (reigned four months) 1222 

Go-Horikawa 1222-1232 

Shijo 1233-1242 

Go-Saga 1243-1246 

Go-Fukakusa 1247-1259 

Kameyama 1260-1274 

Go-Uda 1275-1287 

Fushimi 1288-1298 

Go-Fushimi 1299-1301 

Go-Nijo 1302-1307 

Hanazono 1308-1318 

Go-Daigo 1319-1338 

From the establishment of Kamakura as military capital, the she 
guns were : 

MINAMOTO. 

Toritomo 1185-1199 

Tori-lye" 1201-1203 

San^tomo 1203-1219 

FUJIWARA. 

Yoritsun£ 1220-1243 

Yoritsugu 1244-1251 

emperor's SONS. 

Mun^taka 1252-1265 

Koreyasu 1266-1289 

Hisaakira 1289-1307 

Morikuni 1308-1333 



THE GLORY AND FALL OF THE HO JO FAMILY. 157 

The Hojo have never been forgiven for their arbitrary treatment 
of the mikados. The author of the Nihon Guai Shi terms them 
" serpents, fiends, beasts," etc. To this day, historian, dramatist, novel- 
ist, and story-teller delight to load them with vilest obloquy. Even 
the peasants keep alive the memory of the past. One of the most 
voracious and destructive insects is still called the " Hojo bug." A 
great annual ceremony of extermination of these pests keeps alive the 
hated recollection of their human namesakes. The memory of the 
wrongs suffered by the imperial family goaded on the soldiers in the 
revolution of 1868, who wreaked their vengeance on the Tokugawas, 
as successors of the Hojo. In fighting to abolish forever the hated 
usurpation of six hundred years, and to restore the mikado to his an- 
cient rightful and supreme authority, they remembered well the deeds 
of the Hojo, which the Nihon Guai Shi so eloquently told. In 1873, 
envoys sent out from the imperial court in Tokio, proceeded to the 
island of Sado, and solemnly removing the remains of the banished 
emperor, who had died of a broken heart, buried them, with due pomp, 
in the sacred soil of Yamato, where sleep so many of the dead mikados. 

I have given a picture of the Hojo rule and rulers, which is but the 
reflection of the Japanese popular sentiment, and the opinion of na- 
tive scholars. There is, however, another side to the story. It must 
be conceded that the Hojo were able rulers, and kept order and peace 
in the empire for over a century. They encouraged literature, and 
the cultivation of the arts and sciences. During their period, the re- 
sources of the country were developed, and some branches of useful 
handicraft and fine arts were brought to a perfection never since sur- 
passed. To this time belong the famous image-carver, sculptor, and 
architect, Unkei, and the lacquer-artists, who are the "old masters" 
in this branch of art. The military spirit of the people was kep} 
alive, tactics were improved, and the methods of governmental admin- 
istration simplified. During this period of splendid temples, monaster- 
ies, pagodas, colossal images, and other monuments of holy zeal, Hojo 
Sadatoki erected a monument over the grave of Kiyomori at Hiogo. 
Hojo Tokimune raised and kept in readiness a permanent war-fund, 
so that the military expenses might not interfere with the revenue 
reserved for ordinary government expenses. To his invincible cour- 
age, patriotic pride, and indomitable energy are due the vindication 
of the national honor and the repulse of the Tartar invasion. 

11 



158 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XVI. 

BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 

The religion founded by Buddha, which is older by six centuries 
than that founded by Christ, which is professed by nearly one-third 
of the human race, which has a literature perhaps larger than all other 
religious literatures combined, I shall not attempt to treat of except in 
the broadest terms. My object in this chapter is to portray the en- 
trance and development of Buddhism in Japan, to outline its rise and 
progress, and to show its status in that now fermenting nation in 
which its latest fruits are found. 

Christians must surely be interested in knowing of the faith they 
are endeavoring to destroy, or, at least, to displace. When it is con- 
sidered that Buddhist temples are already erected upon American soil, 
that a new development of this ancient faith may yet set itself up as 
a rival of Christianity in the Western part of our country, that it has 
already won admirers, if not professors, in Boston, London, and Ber- 
lin, the subject will be seen to possess an immediate interest. 

Buddhism originated as a pure atheistic humanitarianism, with a 
lofty philosophy and a code of morals higher, perhaps, than any 
heathen religion had reached before, or has since attained. Its three 
great distinguishing characteristics are atheism, metempsychosis, and 
absence of caste. First preached in a land accursed by secular and 
spiritual oppression, it acknowledged no caste, and declared all men 
equally sinful and miserable, and all equally capable of being freed 
from sin and misery through knowledge. It taught that the souls of 
all men had lived in a previous state of existence, and that all the sor- 
rows of this life are punishments for sins committed in a previous 
state. Each human soul has whirled through countless eddies of ex- 
istence, and has still to pass through a long succession of birth, pain, 
and death. All is fleeting. Nothing is real. This life is all a de- 
lusion. After death, the soul must migrate for ages through stages 
of life, inferior or superior, until, perchance, it arrives at last in Nir- 
vana, or absorption in Buddha. 



BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 159 

The total extinction of being, personality, and consciousness is the 
aspiration of the vast majority of true believers, as it should be of 
every suffering soul, i. e., of all mankind. The true estate of the hu- 
man soul, according to the Buddhist of the Buddhists, is blissful an- 
nihilation. The morals of Buddhism are superior to its metaphysics. 
Its commandments are the dictates of the most refined morality. 
Besides the cardinal prohibitions against murder, stealing, adultery, 
lying, drunkenness, and unchastity, " every shade of vice, hypocrisy, 
anger, pride, suspicion, greediness, gossiping, cruelty to animals, is 
guarded against by special precepts. Among the virtues recommend- 
ed, we find not only reverence of parents, care of children, submission 
to authority, gratitude, moderation in time of prosperity, submission 
in time of trial, equanimity at all times ; but virtues such as the duty 
of forgiving insults, and not rewarding evil with evil." Whatever the 
practice of the people may be, they are taught, as laid down in their 
sacred books, the rules thus summarized above. 

Such, we may glean, was Buddhism in its early purity. Besides its 
moral code and philosophical doctrines, it had almost nothing. An 
" ecclesiastical system " it was not in any sense. Its progress was 
rapid and remarkable. Though finally driven out of India, it swept 
through Burmah, Siam, China, Thibet, Manchuria, Corea, Siberia, 
and finally, after twelve centuries, entered Japan. By this time the 
bare and bald original doctrines of Shaka (Buddha) were glorious in 
the apparel with which Asiatic imagination and priestly necessity had 
clothed and adorned them. The ideas of Shaka had been expanded 
into a complete theological system, with all the appurtenances of a 
stock religion. It had a vast and complicated ecclesiastical and mo- 
nastic machinery, a geographical and sensuous paradise, definitely lo- 
cated hells and purgatories, populated with a hierarchy of titled de- 
mons, and furnished after the most approved theological fashion. Of 
these the priests kept the keys, regulated the thermometers, and timed 
or graded the torture or bliss. The system had, even thus early, a 
minutely catalogued hagiology. Its eschatology was well outlined, 
and the hierarchs claimed to be as expert in questions of casuistry as 
they were at their commercial system of masses still in vogue. Gen- 
eral councils had been held, decrees had been issued, dogmas defined 
or abolished ; Buddhism had emerged from philosophy into religion. 
The Buddhist missionaries entered Japan having a mechanism perfect- 
ly fitted to play upon the fears and hopes of an ignorant people, and 
to bring them into obedience to the new and aggressive faith. 



160 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

If there was one country in which the success of Buddhism as a 
popular religion seemed foreordained, that country was Japan. It 
was virgin soil for any thing that could be called a religion. Before 
Buddhism came, very little worthy of the name existed. Day by 
day, each new ray of the light of research that now falls upon that 
gray dawn of Japanese history shows that Shinto was a pale and 
shadowy cult, that consisted essentially of sacrificing to the spirits of 
departed heroes and ancestors, with ceremonies of bodily purification, 
and that the coming of Buddhism quickened it, by the force of oppo- 
sition, into something approaching a religious system. Swarms of 
petty deities, who have human passions, and are but apotheosized his- 
torical heroes, fill the pantheon of Shinto. The end and aim of even 
its most sincere adherents and teachers is political. Strike out the 
dogma of the divinity of the mikado and the duty of all Japanese to 
obey him implicity, and almost nothing is left of modern Shinto bur. 
Chinese cosmogony, local myth, and Confucian morals.* 

If the heart of the ancient Japanese longed after a solution of the 
questions whence? whither? why? — if it yearned for religious truth, 
as the hearts of all men doubtless do — it must have been ready to wel- 
come something more certain, tangible, and dogmatic than the bland 
emptiness of Shinto. Buddhism came to touch the heart, to fire the 
imagination, to feed the intellect, to offer a code of lofty morals, to 
point out a pure life through self-denial, to awe the ignorant, and to 
terrify the doubting. A well fed and clothed Anglo-Saxon, to whom 



* " I have long endeavored to find out what there is in Shinto, but have long 
given it up, unable to find any thing to reward my labor, excepting a small book 
of Shinto prayers, in which man was recognized as guilty of the commission of 
sin, and in need of cleansing." — J. C. Hepburn, M.D., LL.D., American, seventeen 
years resident in Japan, author of the " Japanese- English and English- Japanese Dic- 
tionary.''' 1 

"ShintS is in no proper sense of the term a religion." "It is difficult to see 
how it could ever have been denominated a religion." "It has rather the look 
of an original Japanese invention."— Rev. S. R. Brown, D.D., American, author 
of U A Grammar of Colloquial Japanese," seventeen years resident in Japan. 

My own impressions of Shinto, given in an article in The Independent in 1871, 
remain unaltered after five years' further study and comparison of opinions, pro 
and con: "In its higher forms, Shinto is simply a cultured and intellectual athe- 
ism. In its lower forms, it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly dic- 
tates." The united verdict given me by native scholars, and even Shinto officials, 
in Fukui and Tokio, was, " Shinto is not a religion : it is a system of government 
regulations, very good to keep alive patriotism among the people." The effect- 
ual, and quite justifiable, use made of this tremendous political engine will be 
seen in the last chapter of Book I., entitled " The Recent Revolutions in Japan." 



B UDDHISlt IN JAPAN. 161 

conscious existence seems the very rapture of joy, and whose sou] 
yearns for an eternity of life, may not understand how a human sou] 
could ever long for utter absorption of being and personality, even in 
God, much less for total annihilation. 

But, among the Asiatic poor, where ceaseless drudgery is often the 
lot for life, where a vegetable diet keeps the vital force low, where 
the tax-gatherer is the chief representative of government, where the 
earthquake and the typhoon are so frequent and dreadful, and where 
the forces of nature are feared as malignant intelligences, life does 
not wear such charms as to lead the human soul to long for an eterni- 
ty of it. No normal Japanese would thrill when he heard the unex- 
plained announcement, " The gift of God is eternal life," or, " Whoso- 
ever believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Such 
words would be painful to him, announcing only a fateful fact. To 
him life is to be dreaded ; not because death lies at the end of it, but 
because birth and life again follow death, and both are but links in an 
almost endless chain. Herein lies the power of Buddhist preaching : 
" Believe in the true doctrine, and live the true believer's life," says 
the bonze, " and you will be born again into higher states of existence, 
thence into higher and higher heavens, until from paradise you rise 
as a purified and saintly soul, to be absorbed in the bosom of holy 
Buddha. Reject the truth, or believe false doctrine (e. g., Christiani- 
ty), and you will be born again thousands of times, only to surfer 
sickness and pain and grief, to die or be killed a thousand times, and, 
finally, to sink into lower and lower hells, before you can regain the 
opportunity to rise higher." This is really the popular form of 
Shaka's doctrine of metempsychosis. The popular Buddhism of Ja- 
pan, at least, is not the bare scheme of philosophy which foreign 
writers seem to think it is. It is a genuine religion in its hold on 
man. It is a vinculum that binds him to the gods of his fathers. 
This form of Buddhism commended itself to both the Japanese sage 
and the ignorant boor, to whom thought is misery, by reason of its 
definiteness, its morals, its rewards, and its punishments. 

Buddhism has a cosmogony and a theory of both the microcosm 
and the macrocosm. It has fully as much, if not more, " science " in 
it than our mediaeval theologians found in the Bible. Its high intel- 
lectuality made noble souls yearn to win its secrets, and to attain the 
conquests over their lusts and passions, by knowledge. 

Among the various sects of Buddhism, however, the understanding 
of the doctrine of Nirvana varies greatly. Some believe in the total 



162 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



nonentity of the human soul, the utter annihilation of consciousness ; 
while others, on the contrary, hold that, as part of the divine whole, 
the human soul enjoys a measure of conscious personality. 

Persecution and opposition at first united together the adherents of 
the new faith, but success and prosperity gave rise to schisms. New 
sects were founded in Japan, while many priests traveled abroad to 
Corea and China, and came back as new lights and reformers, to found 
new schools of thought and worship. Of these the most illustrious 
was Kobo, famed not only as a scholar in Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese, 




Kobo Daishi, Inventor of the Japanese Syllabary. (From a photograph, taken from a 
wooden statue in a temple at Kioto.) 

but as an eminently holy bonze, and the compiler of the Japanese al- 
phabet, or syllabary, *, ro, ha, ni, ho, he, to, etc., in all forty-seven char- 
acters, which, with diacritical points, may be increased to the number 
of seventy. The katagana is the square, the hiragana is the script 
form. Kobo was born a.d. 774 ; and died a.d. 835. He founded a 
temple, and the sect called Shin Gon (True Words). Eight sects 
were in existence in his time, of which only two now survive. 

The thirteenth of the Christian era is the golden century of Japa- 
nese Buddhism ; for then were developed those phases of thought 
peculiar to it, and sects were founded, most of them in Kioto, which 
are still the most flourishing in Japan. Among these were, in 1202, 
the Zen (Contemplation); in 1211, the Jodo (Heavenly Road); in 
1262, the Shin (New) ; in 1282, the Nichiren. In various decades of 



BUDDHISM IX JAPAN. 163 

the same century several other important sects originated, and the 
number of brilliant intellects that adorned the priesthood at this pe- 
riod is remarkable. Of these, only two can be noticed, for lack of 
space. 

In a.d. 1222, there was born, in a suburb of the town of Kominato, 
in Awa, a child who was destined to influence the faith of millions, 
and to leave the impress of his character and intellect indelibly upon 
the minds of his countrymen. He was to found a new sect of 
Buddhism, which should grow to be one of the largest, wealthiest, 
and most influential in Japan, and to excel them all in proselyting 
zeal, polemic bitterness, sectarian bigotry, and intolerant arrogance. 
The Nichiren sect of Buddhists, in its six centuries of history, has 
probably furnished a greater number of brilliant intellects, uncompro- 
mising zealots, unquailing martyrs, and relentless persecutors than 
any other in Japan. No other sect is so fond of controversy. The 
bonzes of none other can excel those of the Nichiren shiu (sect) in 
proselyting zeal, in the bitterness of their theological arguments, in 
the venom of their revilings, or the force with which they hurl their 
epithets at those who differ in opinion or practice from them. In 
their view, all other sects than theirs are useless. According to their 
vocabulary, the adherents of Shin Gon are " not patriots ;" those of 
Ritsu are "thieves and rascals;" of Zen, are "furies;" while those of 
certain other sects are sure and without doubt to go to hell. Among 
the Nichirenites are to be found more prayer-books, drums, and other 
noisy accompaniments of revivals, than in any other sect. They ex- 
cel in the number of pilgrims, and in the use of charms, spells, and 
amulets. Their priests are celibates, and must abstain from wine, fish, 
and all flesh. They are the Ranters of Buddhism. To this day, a re- 
vival-meeting in one of their temples is a scene that often beggars de- 
scription, and may deafen weak ears. What with prayers incessantly 
repeated, drums beaten unceasingly, the shouting of devotees who 
work themselves into an excitement that often ends in insanity, and 
sometimes in death, and the frantic exhortation of the priests, the 
wildest excesses that seek the mantle of religion in other lands are by 
them equaled, if not excelled. To this sect belonged Kato Kiyomasa, 
the bloody persecutor of the Christians in the sixteenth century, the 
" vir ter execrandus " of the Jesuits, but who is now a holy saint in 
the calendar of canonized Buddhists. 

Nichiren (sun-lotus) was so named by his mother, who at concep- 
tion had dreamed that the sun (nichi) had entered her body. This 



164 THE MIKADO'S EJIPIBE. 

story is also told of other mothers of Japanese great men, and seems 
to be a favorite stock-belief concerning the women who bear children 
that afterward become men of renown or exalted holiness. The boy- 
grew up surrounded by the glorious scenery of mountain, wave, shore, 
and with the infinity of the Pacific Ocean before him. He was a 
dreamy, meditative child. He was early put under the care of a holy 
bonze, but when grown to manhood discarded many of the old doc- 
trines, and, being dissatisfied with the other sects, resolved to found 
one, the followers of which should be the holders and exemplars of 
the pure truth. 

Nichiren was a profound student of the Buddhist classics, or sutras, 
brought from India, and written in Sanskrit and Chinese, for the en- 
tire canon of Buddhist holy books has at various times been brought 
from India or China, and translated into Chinese in Japan. Here- 
tofore, the common prayer of all the Japanese Buddhists had been 
ii JVamu J Amida Butsii " (Hail, Amida Buddha ! or, Save us, Eternal 
Buddha!). Nichiren taught that the true invocation was u Namu 
mid ho ren ge kid " (Glory to the salvation-bringing book of the law ; 
or, literally, Hail, the true way of salvation, the blossom of doctrine). 
This is still the distinctive prayer of the Nichiren sect. It is inscribed 
on the temple curtains, on their tombstones and wayside shrines, and 
was emblazoned on the banners carried aloft by the great warriors on 
sea and land who belonged to the sect. The words are the Chinese 
translation of Mamah Saddharma-pundarika-sutra, one of the chief 
canonical books of the Buddhist Scriptures, and in use by all the sects. 
Nichiren professed to find in it the true and only way of salvation, 
which the other expounders of Shaka's doctrine had not properly 
taught. He declared that the way as taught by him was the true 
and only one. . 

Nichiren founded numerous temples, and was busy during the 
whole of his life, when not in exile, in teaching, preaching, and itin- 
erating. He published a book called Ankoku Ron ("An Argument to 
tranquilize the Country "). The bitterness with which he attacked oth- 
er sects roused up a host of enemies against him, who complained to 
Hojo Tokiyori, the shikken, or holder of the power, at Kamakura, and 
prayed to have him silenced, as a destroyer of the public peace, as in- 
deed the holy man was. The title of his book was by no means an 
exponent of its tone or style. 

Nichiren was banished to Cape Ito, in Idzu, where he remained 
three years. On his release, instead of holding his tongue, he allowed 



BUDDHISM IN JAPAN 165 

it to ran more violently than ever against other sects, especially de- 
crying the great and learned priests of previous generations. Ho jo 
Tokiyori again arrested him, confined him in a dungeon below 
ground, and condemned him to death. 

The following story is told, and devoutly believed, by his followers : 
On a certain day he was taken out to a village on the strand of the 
bay beyond Kamakura, and in front of the lovely island of Enoshima. 
This village is called Koshigoye. At this time Nichiren was forty- 
three years old. Kneeling down upon the strand, the saintly bonze 
calmly uttered his prayers, and repeated "Namu mid ho ren ge kid " 
upon his rosary. The swordsman lifted his blade, and, with all his 
might, made the downward stroke. Suddenly a flood of blinding 
light burst from the sky, and smote upon the executioner and the offi- 
cial inspector deputed to witness the severed head. The sword-blade 
was broken in pieces, while the holy man was unharmed. At the 
same moment, Ho jo, the Lord of Kamakura, was startled at his revels 
in the palace by the sound of rattling thunder and the flash of light- 
ning, though there was not a cloud in the sky. Dazed by the awful 
signs of Heaven's displeasure, Ho jo Tokiyori, divining that it was on 
account of the holy victim, instantly dispatched a fleet messenger to 
stay the executioner's hand and reprieve the victim. Simultaneously 
the official inspector at the still unstained blood-pit sent a courier to 
beg reprieve for the saint whom the sword could not touch. The 
two men, coming from opposite directions, met at the small stream 
which the tourist still crosses on the way from Kamakura to Enoshi' 
ma, and it was thereafter called Yukiai (meeting on the way) River, a 
name which it retains to this day. Through the pitiful clemency and 
intercession of Ho jo Tokimune, son of the Lord of Kamakura, Nichi- 
ren was sent to Sado Island. He was afterward released by his bene- 
factor in a general amnesty. Nichiren founded his sect at Kioto, and 
it greatly flourished under the care of his disciple, his reverence Ni- 
chizo. After a busy and holy life, the great saint died at Ikegami, a 
little to north-west of the Kawasaki railroad station, between Yokoha 
ma and Tokio, where the scream of the locomotive and the rumble of 
the railway car are but faintly heard in its solemn shades. There are 
to be seen gorgeous temples, pagodas, shrines, magnificent groves and 
cemeteries. The dying presence of Nichiren has lent this place pecul- 
iar sanctity ; but his bones rest on Mount Minobu, in the province of 
Kai, where was one of his homes when in the flesh. See Frontispiece. 
While in Japan, I made special visits to many of the places rendered 



166 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

most famous by Nichiren, of his birth, labors, triumph, and death, and 
there formed the impressions of his work and followers which I have 
in this chapter set forth. So far as I am able to judge, none of the 
native theologians has stamped his impress more deeply on the relig- 
ious intellect of Japan than has Nichiren. It may be vain prophecy, 
but I believe that Christianity in Japan will find its most vigorous 
and persistent opposers among this sect, and that it will be the last to 
yield to the now triumphing faith that seems clasping the girdle of 
world-victory in Japan. 

Their astonishing success and tremendous power, and their intoler- 
ance and bigotry, are to be ascribed to the same cause — the precision, 
distinctness, and exclusiveness of the teachings of their master. In 
their sacred books, and in the sermons of their bonzes, the Nichirenites 
are exhorted to reflect diligently upon the peculiar blessings vouch- 
safed to them as a chosen sect, and to understand that they are fa- 
vored above all others in privilege, that their doctrines are the only 
true ones, and that perfect salvation is attainable by no other method 
or system. It is next to impossible for them to fraternize with other 
Buddhists, and they themselves declare that, though all the other sects 
may combine into one, yet they must remain apart, unless their tenets 
be adopted. The proscription of other sects, and the employment of 
reviling and abuse as a means of propagation introduced by Nichiren, 
was a comparatively new thing in Japan. It stirred up persecution 
against the new faith and its followers ; and this, coupled with the in- 
vincible fortitude and zeal of the latter, were together as soil and seed. 

The era and developments of Nichiren may be called the second 
revival of Buddhism in Japan, since it infused into that great religion, 
which had, at the opening of the thirteenth century, reached a stage 
of passive quiescence, the spirit of proselytism which was necessary to 
keep it from stagnant impurity and heartless formality. 

Though the success of Nichiren inaugurated an era of zeal and big- 
otry, it also awoke fresh life into that power which is the best repre- 
sentative of the religious life of the nation. Whether we call Bud- 
dhism a false or a true religion, even the most shallow student of the 
Japanese people must acknowledge that the pure religious, as well as 
the superstitious, character of the masses of the Japanese people has 
been fostered and developed more by Buddhism than by any and all 
other influences. 

Some of the superstitions of the Nichirenites are gross and revolt- 
ing, but among their beliefs and customs is the nagare kanjo (flowing 



BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 169 

invocation). I shall call it " the mother's memorial." It is practiced 
chiefly by the followers of Nichiren, though it is sometimes employed 
by other sects. 

A sight not often met with in the cities, but in the suburbs and 
country places frequent as the cause of it requires, is the nagare 
kanjo (flowing invocation). A piece of cotton cloth is suspended by 
its four corners to stakes set in the ground near a brook, rivulet, or, 
if in the city, at the side of the water-course which fronts the houses 
of the better classes. Behind it rises a higher, lath-like board, notched 
several times near the top, and inscribed with a brief legend. Rest- 
ing on the cloth at the brookside, or, if in the city, in a pail of water, 
is a wooden dipper. Perhaps upon the four corners, in the upright 
bamboo, may be set bouquets of flowers. A careless stranger may 
not notice the odd thing, but a little study of its parts reveals the 
symbolism of death. The tall lath tablet is the same as that set be- 
hind graves and tombs. The ominous Sanskrit letters betoken death. 
Even the flowers in their bloom call to mind the tributes of affection- 
ate remembrance which loving survivors set in the sockets of the mon 
uments in the grave-yards. On the cloth is written a name such as 
is given to persons after death, and the prayer, "Namu mid ho ren 
ge hid " (Glory to the salvation-bringing Scriptures). Waiting long 
enough, perchance but a few minutes, there may be seen a passer-by 
who pauses, and, devoutly offering a prayer with the aid of his rosary, 
reverently dips a ladleful of water, pours it upon the cloth, and waits 
patiently until it has strained through, before moving on. 

All this, when the significance is understood, is very touching. It 
is the story of vicarious suffering, of sorrow from the brink of joy, of 
one dying that another may live. It tells of mother-love and mother- 
woe. It is a mute appeal to every passer-by, by the love of Heaven, 
to shorten the penalties of a soul in pain. 

The Japanese (Buddhists) believe that all calamity is the result of 
sin either in this or a previous state of existence. The mother who 
dies in childbed suffers, by such a death, for some awful transgression, 
it may be in a cycle of existence long since passed. For it she must 
leave her new-born infant, in the full raptures of mother-joy, and sink 
into the darkness of Hades, to wallow in a lake of blood. There 
must she groan and suffer until the " flowing invocation " ceases, by 
the wearing-out of the symbolic cloth. When this is so utterly worn 
that the water no longer drains, but falls through at once, the freed 
spirit of the mother, purged of her sin, rises to resurrection among 



170 THE MIX AD ' S EMPIRE. 

the exalted beings of a hig;her cycle of existence. Devout men, as 
they pass by, reverently pour a ladleful of water. Women, especial- 
ly those who have felt mother-pains, and who rejoice in life and lov- 
ing offspring, repeat the expiatory act with deeper feeling ; but the 
depths of sympathy are fathomed only by those who, being mothers, 
are yet bereaved. Yet, as in presence of nature's awful glories the 
reverent gazer is shocked by the noisy importunity of the beggar, so 
before this sad and touching memorial the proofs of sordid priest- 
craft chill the warm sympathy which the sight even from the heart 
of an alien might evoke. 

The cotton cloth inscribed with the prayer and the name of the de- 
ceased, to be efficacious, can be purchased only at the temples. I have 
been told, and it is no secret, that rich people are able to secure a 
napkin which, when stretched but a few days, will rupture, and let the 
water pass through at once. The poor man can get only the stout- 
est and most closely woven fabric. The limit of purgatorial penance 
is thus fixed by warp and woof, and warp and woof are gauged by 
money. The rich man's napkin is scraped thin in the middle. Nev- 
ertheless, the poor mother secures a richer tribute of sympathy from 
her humble people ; for in Japan, as in other lands, poverty has many 
children, while wealth mourns for heirs ; and in the lowly walks of 
life are more pitiful women who have felt the woe and the joy of 
motherhood than in the mansions of the rich. 

In Echizen, especially in the country towns and villages, the custom 
is rigidly observed; but though I often looked for the nagare kanjo 
in Tokio, I never saw one. I am told, however, that they may be 
seen in the outskirts of the city. The drawing of one seen near Ta- 
kefu, in Echizen, was made for me by my artist-friend Ozawa, a num- 
ber of whose sketches appear in this work. 

The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism are the followers of Shin 
shiu, founded by his reverence Shinran, in 1262. Shinran was a 
pupil of Honen, who founded the Jodo shiu, and was of noble de- 
scent. While in Kioto, at thirty years of age, he married a lady of 
noble blood, named Tamayori hime, the daughter of the Kuambaku. 
He thus taught by example, as well as by precept, that marriage was 
honorable, and that celibacy was an invention of the priests, not war- 
ranted by pure Buddhism. Penance, fasting, prescribed diet, pil- 
grimages, isolation from society, whether as hermits or in the cloister, 
and generally amulets and charms, are all tabooed by this sect. Nun- 
neries and monasteries are unknown within its pale. The family 




Belfry of a Buddhist Temple in Ozaka. 



BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 173 

takes the place of monkish seclusion. Devout prayer, purity, and 
earnestness of life, and trust in Buddha himself as the only worker of 
perfect righteousness, are insisted upon. Other sects teach the doc- 
trine of salvation by works. Shin ran taught that it is faith in Buddha 
that accomplishes the salvation of the believer. 

Buddhism seems to most foreigners who have studied it but Roman 
Catholicism without Christ, and in Asiatic form. The Shin sect hold 
a form of the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith, believing 
in Buddha instead of Jesus. Singleness of purpose characterizes this 
sect. Outsiders call it Ikko, from the initial word of a text in their 
chief book, Murioju Kio (" Book of Constant Life "). By others it 
is spoken of as Monto (gate-followers), in reference to their unity of 
organization. The Scriptures of other sects are written in Sanskrit 
and Chinese, which only the learned are able to read. 

Those of Monto are in the vernacular Japanese writing and idiom. 
Other sects build temples in sequestered places among the hills. The 
Shin - shiuists erect theirs in the heart of cities, on main streets, in 
the centres of population. They endeavor, by every means in their 
power, to induce the people to come to them. In Fukui their twin 
temples stood in the most frequented thoroughfares. In Tokio, Oza- 
ka, Kioto, Nagasaki, and other cities, the same system of having twin 
temples in the heart of the city is pursued, and the largest and finest 
ecclesiastical structures are the duplicates of this sect. The altars are 
on a scale of imposing magnificence, and gorgeous in detail. A com- 
mon saying is, " As handsome as a Monto altar." The priests marry, 
rear families, and their sons succeed them to the care of the temples. 
In default of male issue, the husband of the daughter of the priest, 
should he have one, takes the office of his father-in-law. Many mem- 
bers of the priesthood and their families are highly educated, perhaps 
more so than the bonzes of any other sect. Personal acquaintance 
with several of the Monto priests enables me to substantiate this fact 
asserted of them. 

The followers of Shinran have ever held a high position, and have 
wielded vast influence in the religious development of the people. 
Both for good and evil they have been among the foremost of active 
workers in the cause of religion. In time of war the Monto bonzes 
put on armor, and, with their families and adherents, have in numer- 
ous instances formed themselves into military battalions. We shall 
hear more of their martial performances in succeeding chapters. 

After the death of Shinran, Rennio, who died in 1500, became the 

12 



174 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

revivalist of Monto, and wrote the Ofumi, or sacred writings, which 
are now daily read by the disciples of this denomination. With the 
characteristic object of reaching the masses, they are written in the 
common script hiragana writing, which all the people of both sexes 
can read. Though greatly persecuted by other sectaries, they have 
continually increased in numbers, wealth, and power, and now lead all 
in intelligence and influence. To the charges of uncleanness which 
others bring against them, because they marry wives, eat and drink 
and live so much like unclerical men, they calmly answer, the bright 
rays of the sun shine on all things alike, and that it is not for them to 
call things unclean which have evidently been created for man's use ; 
that righteousness consists neither in eating nor drinking, nor in absti- 
nence from the blessings vouchsafed to mortals in this vale of woe ; 
and that the maxims and narrow-minded doctrines, with the neglect 
of which they are reproached, can only have proceeded from the folly 
or vanity of men. They claim that priests with families are purer 
men than celibates in monasteries, and that the purity of society is 
best maintained by a married priesthood. Within the last two decades 
they were the first to organize their theological schools on the model 
of foreign countries, that their young men might be trained to resist 
Shinto or Christianity, or to measure the truth in either. The last 
new charge urged against them by their rivals is that they are so 
much like Christians, that they might as well be such out and out. 
Liberty of thought and action, an incoercible desire to be free from 
governmental, traditional, ultra-ecclesiastical, or Shinto influence — in 
a word, Protestantism in its pure sense, is characteristic of the great 
sect founded by Shinran. 

To treat of the doctrinal difference and various customs of the dif- 
ferent denominations would require a volume. Japanese Buddhism 
richly deserves thorough study, and a scholarly treatise by itself.* The 

* It is a question worthy the deepest research and fullest inquiry, as to the 
time occupied in converting the Japanese people to the Buddhist faith. It is 
not probable, as some foreigners believe, that Wani (see page 76) brought the 
knowledge of the Indian religion to Japan. The Xihongi gives the year 552 as 
that in which Buddhist books, images, rosaries, altar furniture, vestments, etc., 
were bestowed as presents at the imperial palace, and deposited in the court of 
ceremony. The imported books were diligently studied by a few court nobles, 
and in 584 several of them openly professed the new faith. In 585, a frightful pes- 
tilence that broke out was ascribed by the patriotic opponents of the foreign faith 
to the anger of the gods against the new religion. A long and bitter dispute fol- 
lowed, and some of the new temples and idols were destroyed. In spite of patri- 
otism and conservative zeal, the worship and ritual were established in the pal- 



B UDDHISM IN JAPAN. 175 

part played by the great Buddhist sects in the national drama of histo- 
ry in later centuries will be seen as we proceed in our narrative. 

ace, new missionaries were invited from Corea, and in 624 two bonzes were given 
official rank, as primate and vice-primate. Temples were erected, and, at the 
death of a bonze, in 700, his body was disposed of by cremation — a new thing in 
Japan. In 741, an imperial decree, ordering the erection of two temples and a 
geven-storied pagoda in each province, was promulgated. In 765, a priest became 
Dai Jo Dai Jin. In 827, a precious relic — one of Shaka's (Buddha's) bones — was 
deposited in the palace. The masterstroke of theological dexterity was made 
early in the ninth century, when Kobo, who had studied three years in China, 
achieved the reconciliation of the native belief and the foreign religion, made 
patriotism and piety one, and laid the foundation of the permanent and univer- 
sal success of Buddhism in Japan. This Japanese Philo taught that the Shinto 
deities, or gods, of Japan were manifestations, or transmigrations, of Buddha in 
that country, and, by his scheme of dogmatic theology, secured the ascendency 
of Buddhism over Shinto and Confucianism. Until near the fourteenth century, 
however, Buddhism continued to be the religion of the official, military, and edu- 
cated classes, but not of the people at large. Its adoption by all classes may be 
ascribed to the missionary labors of Shinran and Nichiren, whose banishment 
to the North and East made them itinerant apostles. Shinran traveled on foot 
through every one of the provinces north and east of Kioto, glorying in his exile, 
everywhere preaching, teaching, and making new disciples. It may be safely 
said that it required nine hundred years to convert the Japanese people from 
fetichism and Shinto to Buddhism. 

It is extremely difficult to get accurate statistics relating to Japanese Bud- 
dhism. The following table was compiled for me by a learned bonze of the Shin 
denomination, in the temple of Nishi Honguanji, in Tsukiji, Tokio. I have com- 
pared it with data furnished by an ex-priest in Fukui, and various laymen. 

The ecclesiastical centre of Japan has always been at Kioto. The chief temples 
and monasteries of each sect were located there. 

TABULAR LIST OP BUDDHIST SECTS IN JAPAN. 

«!.• c e i /ou- \ Total Number 

Chief Sects (Shiu). 

oi Temples. 

I. Tendai. Founded by Chisha, in China : 3 sub-sects 6,391 

IT. Shiugou. Founded by Kobo, in Japan, a.d. S13 : 3 sub-sects 15,503 

IIL Zen. Founded by Darma, in Japan : 6 sub-sects 21,547 

IV. Jodo. Founded by Honen, in Japan, 1173 : 2 sub-sects 9,819 

V. Shin. Founded by Shinran, in Japan, 1213 : 5 sub-sects 13,718 

VI. Nichiren. Founded by Nichiren, in Japan, 1262 : 2 sub-sects 

VII. Ji. Founded by Ippen, in Japan, 1288 586 

Besides the above, there are twenty-one "irregular," "local," or "independ- 
ent" sects, which act apart from the others, and in some cases have no temples 
or monasteries. A number of other sects have originated in Japan, flourished for 
a time, decayed, and passed out of existence. According to the census of 1872, 
there were in Japan 211,846 Buddhist religieux of both sexes and all grades and 
orders. Of these, 75,925 were priests, abbots, or monks, 9 abbesses; 37,327 were 
reckoned as novices or students, and 98,585 were in monasteries or families 
(mostly of Shin sect) ; 151,677 were males, 60,159 were females, and 9,621 were 
nuns. By the census of 1875, the returns gave 207,669 Buddhist religieux, of 
whom 148,807 were males, and 58,862 females. 



176 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XVII. 

THE INVASION OF THE MONGOL TARTARS. 

During the early centuries of the Christian era, friendly intercourse 
was regularly kept up between Japan and China. Embassies were 
dispatched to and fro on various missions, but chiefly with the mutual 
object of bearing the congratulations to an emperor upon his accession 
to the throne. It is mentioned in the " Gazetteer of Echizen " {Echi- 
zen KoTcu Mei Seiki Ko) that embassadors from China, with a retinue 
and crew of one hundred and seventy-eight persons, came to Japan 
a.d. 776, to bear congratulations to the mikado, Konin Tenno. The 
vessel was wrecked in a typhoon off the coast of Echizen, and but 
forty-six of the company were saved. They were fed and sheltered in 
Echizen. In a.d. 779, the Japanese embassy, returning from China, 
landed at Mikuni, the sea -port of Fukui. In 883, orders were sent 
from Kioto to the provinces north of the capital to repair the bridges 
and roads, bury the dead bodies, and remove all obstacles, because the 
envoys of China were coming that way. The civil disorders in both 
countries interrupted these friendly relations in the twelfth century, 
and communications ceased until they were renewed again in the time 
of the Ho jo, in the manner now to be described. 

In China, the Mongol Tartars had overthrown the Sung dynasty, 
and had conquered the adjacent countries. Through the Coreans, the 
Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, at whose court Marco Polo and his 
uncles were then residing, sent letters demanding tribute and hom- 
age from Japan. Chinese envoys came to Kamakura, but Hojo Toki- 
mune, enraged at the insolent demands, dismissed them in disgrace. 
Six embassies were sent, and six times rejected. 

An expedition from China, consisting of ten thousand men, was 
sent against Japan. They landed at Tsushima and Iki. They were 
bravely attacked, and their commander slain. All Kiushiu having 
roused to arms, the expedition returned, having accomplished nothing. 
The Chinese emperor now sent nine envoys, who announced their pur- 
pose to remain until a definite answer was returned to their master. 
They were called to Kamakura, and the Japanese reply was given by 



THE INVASION OF THE MONGOL TARTARS. 177 

cutting off their heads at the village of Tatsu no kuchi (Mouth of the 
Dragon), near the city. The Japanese now girded themselves for the 
war they knew was imminent. Troops from the East were sent to 
guard Kioto. Munitions of war were prepared, magazines stored, cas- 
tles repaired, and new armies levied and drilled. Boats and junks 
were built to meet the enemy on the sea. Once more Chinese en- 
voys came to demand tribute. Again the sword gave the answer, and 
their heads fell at Daizaifu, in Kiushiu, in 1279. 

Meanwhile the armada was preparing. Great China was coming to 
crush the little strip of land that refused homage to the invincible con- 
queror. The army numbered one hundred thousand Chinese and Tar- 
tars, and seven thousand Coreans, in ships that whitened the sea as 
the snowy herons whiten the islands of Lake Biwa. They numbered 
thirty-five hundred in all. In the Seventh month of the year 1281, 
the tasseled prows and fluted sails of the Chinese junks greeted the 
straining eyes of watchers on the hills of Daizaifu. The armada 
sailed gallantly up. and ranged itself off the castled city. Many of 
the junks were of immense proportions, larger than the natives of 
Japan had ever seen, and armed with the engines of European war- 
fare, which their Venetian guests had taught the Mongols to con 
struct and work. The Japanese had small chance of success on the 
water ; as, although their boats, being swifter and lighter, were more 
easily managed, yet many of them were sunk by the darts and huge 
stones hurled by the catapults mounted on their enemy's decks. In 
personal prowess the natives of Nippon were superior. Swimming 
out to the fleet, a party of thirty boarded a junk, and cut off the 
heads of the crew; but another company attempting to do so, were 
all killed by the now wary Tartars. One captain, Kusanojiro, with a 
picked crew, in broad daylight, sculled rapidly out to an outlying junk, 
and, in spite of a shower of darts, one of which took off his left arm, 
ran his boat along-side a Chinese junk, and, letting down the masts, 
boarded the decks. A hand-to-hand fight ensued, and, before the ene- 
my's fleet could assist, the daring assailants set the ship on fire and 
were off, carrying away twenty-one heads. The fleet now ranged it- 
self in a cordon, linking each vessel to the other with an iron chain. 
They hoped thus to foil the cutting-out parties. Besides the cata- 
pults, immense bow-guns shooting heavy darts were mounted on their 
decks, so as to sink all attacking boats. By these means many of the 
latter were destroyed, and more than one company of Japanese who 
expected victory lost their lives. Still, the enemy could not effect a 



178 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

landing in force. Their small detachments were cut off or driven into 
the sea as soon as they reached the shore, and over two thousand 
heads were among the trophies of the defenders in the skirmishes. A 
line of fortifications many miles long, consisting of earth -works and 
heavy palisading of planks, was now erected along-shore. Behind 
these the defenders watched the invaders, and challenged them to 
land. 

There was a Japanese captain, Michiari, who had long hoped for 
this invasion. He had prayed often to the gods that he might have 
opportunity to fight the Mongols. He had written his prayers on pa- 
per, and, learning them, had solemnly swallowed the ashes. He was 
now overjoyed at the prospect of a combat. Sallying out from be- 
hind the breastwork, he defied the enemy to fight. Shortly after, he 
filled two boats with brave fellows and pushed out, apparently un 
armed, to the fleet. "He is mad," cried the spectators on shore. 
" How bold," said the men on the fleet, " for two little boats to attack 
thousands of great ships ! Surely he is coming to surrender himself." 
Supposing this to be his object, they refrained from shooting. When 
within a few oars-lengths, the Japanese, flinging out ropes with grap- 
pling-hooks, leaped on the Tartar junk. The bows and spears of the 
latter were no match for the two-handed razor-like swords of the Jap- 
anese. The issue, though for a while doubtful, was a swift and com- 
plete victory for the men who were fighting for their native land. 
Burning the junk, the surviving victors left before the surrounding 
ships could cut them off. Among the captured was one of the high- 
est officers in the Mongol fleet. 

The whole nation was now roused. Re - enforcements poured in 
from all quarters to swell the host of defenders. From the monas- 
teries and temples all over the country went up unceasing prayer to 
the gods to ruin their enemies and save the land of Japan. The em- 
peror and ex-emperor went in solemn state to the chief priest of Shin- 
to, and, writing out their petitions to the gods, sent him as a messen- 
ger to the shrines at Ise. It is recorded, as a miraculous fact, that at 
the hour of noon, as the sacred envoy arrived at the shrine and offered 
the prayer — the day being perfectly clear — a streak of cloud appeared 
in the sky, which soon overspread the heavens, until the dense masses 
portended a storm of awful violence. 

One of those cyclones, called by the Japanese tai-fu, or okaze, of 
appalling velocity and resistless force, such as whirl along the coasts 
of Japan and China during late summer and early fall of every year, 



THE INVASION OF THE MONGOL TARTARS. 181 

burst upon the Chinese fleet. Nothing can withstand these maelstroms 
of the air. We call them typhoons ; the Japanese say tai-fu, or okaze 
(iireat wind). Iron steamships of thousands of horse -power are al- 
most unmanageable in them. Junks are helpless : the Chinese ships 
were these only. They were butted together like mad bulls. They 
were impaled on the rocks, dashed against the cliffs, or tossed on land 
like corks from the spray. They were blown over till they careened 
and filled. Heavily freighted with human beings, they sunk by hun- 
dreds. The corpses were piled on the shore, or floating on the water 
so thickly that it seemed almost possible to walk thereon. Those 
driven out to sea may have reached the main-land, but were probably 
overwhelmed. The vessels of the survivors, in large numbers, drifted to 
or were wrecked upon Taka Island, where they established themselves, 
and, cutting down trees, began building boats to reach Corea. Here 
they were attacked by the Japanese, and, after a bloody struggle, all the 
fiercer for the despair on the one side and the exultation on the other, 
were all slain or driven into the sea to be drowned, except three, who 
were sent back to tell their emperor how the gods of Japan had de- 
stroyed their armada. The Japanese exult in the boast that their gods 
and their heaven prevailed over the gods and the heaven of the Chinese. 

This was the last time that China ever attempted to conquer Japan, 
whose people boast that their land has never been defiled by an invad- 
ing army. They have ever ascribed the glory of the destruction of 
the Tartar fleet to the interposition of the gods at Ise, who thereafter 
received special and grateful adoration as the guardian of the seas and 
winds. Great credit and praise were given to the lord of Kamakura, 
Hojo Tokimune, for his energy, ability, and valor. The author of 
the Guai Shi says, " The repulse of the Tartar barbarians by Toki- 
mune, and his preserving the dominions of our Son of Heaven, were 
sufficient to atone for the crimes of his ancestors." 

Nearly six centuries afterward, when " the barbarian " Perry anchor- 
ed his fleet in the Bay of Yedo, in the words of the native annalist, 
" Orders were sent by the imperial court to the Shinto priests at Ise 
to offer up prayers for the sweeping-away of the barbarians." Mill- 
ions of earnest hearts put up the same prayers as their fathers had 
offered, fully expecting the same result. 

To this day the Japanese mother in Kiushiu hushes her fretful in- 
fant by the question, "Do you think the Mogu (Mongols) are com- 
ing ?" This is the only serious attempt at invasion ever made by any 
nation upon the shores of Japan. 



182 TEE MIKAD ' S EMPIRE. 



XVIII. 

THE TEMPORARY MIKADO ATE. 

The first step taken after the overthrow of the military usurpation 
at Kamakura was to recall the mikado Go-Daigo from exile. With 
the sovereign again in full power, it seemed as though the ancient and 
rightful government was to be permanently restored. The military or 
dual system had lasted about one hundred and fifty years, and patriots 
now hoped to see the country rightly governed, without intervention 
between the throne and the people. The rewarding of the victors 
who had fought for him was the first duty awaiting the restored exile. 
The methods and procedure of feudalism were now so fixed in the 
general policy of the Government, that Go-Daigo, falling into the 
ways of the Minamoto and Hojo, apportioned military fiefs as guer- 
dons to his vassals. Among them was Ashikaga Takauji, to whom 
was awarded the greatest prize, consisting of the rich provinces of 
Hitachi, Musashi, and Shimosa. To Kusunoki Masashige were given 
Settsu and Kawachi; and to Nitta, Kodzuke and Harima, besides 
smaller fiefs to many others. 

This unfair distribution of spoils astounded the patriots, who ex- 
pected to see high rank and power conferred upon Nitta and Kusuno- 
ki, the chief leaders in the war for the restoration, and both very able 
men. It would have been well had the emperor seen the importance 
of disregarding the claims and privileges of caste, and exalted to high- 
est rank the faithful men who were desirous of maintaining the dig- 
nity of the throne, and whose chief fear was that the duarchy would 
again arise. Such a fear was by no means groundless, for Ashikaga, 
elated at such unexpected favor, became inflamed with a still higher 
ambition, and already meditated refounding the shogunate at Kama- 
kura, and placing his own family upon the military throne. Being of 
Minamoto stock, he knew that he had prestige and popularity in his 
favor, should he attempt the re-erection of the shogunate. Most of 
the common soldiers had fought rather against Hojo than against du- 
archy. The emperor was warned against this man by his ministers; 



THE TEMPORARY MIKADO ATE. 183 

but in this case a woman's smiles and caresses and importunate words 
were more powerful than the advice of sages. Ashikaga had bribed 
the mikado's concubine Kadoko, and had so won her favor that she 
persuaded her imperial lord to bestow excessive and undeserved honor 
on the traitor. 

The distribution of spoils excited discontent among the soldiers, 
who now began to lose all interest in the cause for which they had 
fought, and to murmur privately among themselves. " Should such 
an unjust government continue," said they, " then are we all servants 
of concubines and dancing - girls and singing -boys. Rather than be 
the puppets of the mikado's amusers, we would prefer a shogun again, 
and become his vassals." Many of the captains and smaller clan-leaders 
were also in bad humor over their own small shares. Ashikaga Taka- 
uji took advantage of this feeling to make himself popular among the 
disaffected, especially those who clung to arms as a profession and 
wished to remain soldiers, preferring war to peace. Of such inflamma- 
ble material the latent traitor was not slow to avail himself when it 
suited him to light the flames of war. 

Had the mikado listened to his wise counselor, and also placed Ku- 
sunoki in an office commensurate with his commanding abilities, and 
rewarded Nitta as he deserved, the century of anarchy and bloodshed 
which followed might have been spared to Japan. 

Go-Daigo, who in the early years of his former reign had been a 
man of indomitable courage and energy, seems to have lost the best 
traits of his character in his exile, retaining only his imperious will 
and susceptibility to flattery. To this degenerate Samson a Delilah 
was not wanting. He fell an easy victim to the wiles of one man, 
though the shears by which his strength was shorn were held by a 
woman. Ashikaga was a consummate master of the arts of adulation 
and political craft. He was now to further prove his skill, and to 
verify the warnings of Nitta and the ministers. The emperor made 
Moriyoshi, his own son, shogun. Ashikaga, jealous of the appoint- 
ment, and having too ready access to the infatuated father's ear, told 
him that his son was plotting to get possession of the throne. Mori- 
yoshi, hating the flatterer, and stung to rage by the base slander, 
marched against him. Ashikaga now succeeded by means of his ally 
in the imperial bed in making himself, in the eyes of the mikado, the 
first victim to the conspiracies of the prince. So great was his power 
over the emperor that he obtained from the imperial hand a decree to 
punish his enemy Moriyoshi as a choteki, or rebel, against the mikado. 



184 THE MIKADO'S E2IPIBE. 

Here we have a striking instance of what, in the game of Japanese 
state-craft, may be called the checkmate move, or, in the native idiom, 
Ote, " king's hand.' 1 It is difficult for a foreigner to fully appreciate 
the prestige attaching to the mikado's person — a prestige never dimin- 
ishing. No matter how low his actual measure of power, the meanness 
of his character, or the insignificance of his personal abilities, he was 
the Son of Heaven, his word was law, his command omnipotent. He 
was the fountain of all rank and authority. No military leader, how- 
ever great his resources or ability, could win the popular heart or 
hope for ultimate success unless appointed by the emperor. He who 
held the Son of Heaven in his power was master. Hence it was the 
constant aim of all the military leaders, even down to 1868, to obtain 
control of the imperial person. However wicked or villainous the 
keeper of the mikado, he was master of the situation. His enemies 
were choteki, or rebels against the Son of Heaven ; his own soldiers 
were the kuan-gun, or loyal army. Even might could not make right. 
Possession of the divine person was more than nine-tenths — it was 
the whole — of the law. 

Moriyoshi, then, being choteki, was doomed. Ashikaga, having the 
imperial order, had the kuan-gun, and was destined to win. The sad 
fate of the emperor's son awakens the saddest feelings, and brings 
tears to the eyes of the Japanese reader even at the present day. He 
was seized, deposed, sent to Kamakura, and murdered in a subter- 
ranean dungeon in the Seventh month of the year 1335. 

His child in exile, the heart of the emperor relented. The scales 
fell from his eyes. He saw that he had wrongly suspected his son, 
and that the real traitor was Ashikaga. The latter, noticing the 
change that had come over his master, left Kioto secretly, followed by 
thousands of the disaffected soldiery, and fled to Kamakura, which he 
had rebuilt, and began to consolidate his forces with a view of again 
erecting the Eastern capital, and seizing the power formerly held by 
the Hojo. Xitta had also been accused by Ashikaga, but, having 
cleared himself in a petition to the mikado, he received the imperial 
commission to chastise his rival. In the campaign which followed, 
the imperial forces were so hopelessly defeated that the quondam im- 
perial exile now became a fugitive. With his loyal followers he left 
Kioto, carrying with him the sacred emblems of authority. 

Ashikaga, though a triumphant victor, occupied a critical position. 
He was a choteki. As such he could never win final success. He 
had power and resources, but, unlike others equally usurpers, was not 



THE TEMPORARY MIX ADO ATE. 185 

clothed with authority. He was, in popular estimation, a rebel of the 
deepest dye. In such a predicament he could not safely remain a 
day. The people would take the side of the emperor. What should 
he do \ His vigor, acuteness, and villainy were equal. The Hojo had 
deposed and set up emperors. It was Ashikaga who divided the alle- 
giance of the people, gave Japan a War of the Roses (or Chrysanthe- 
mums), tilled the soil for feudalism, and lighted the flames of war 
that made Kioto a cock-pit, abandoned the land for nearly two cent- 
uries and a half to slaughter, ignorance, and paralysis of national prog- 
ress. To clothe his acts with right, he made a new Son of Heaven. 
He declared Kogen, who was of the royal family, emperor. In 1336, 
this new Son of Heaven gave Ashikaga the title of Sei-i Tai Shogun. 
Kamakura again became the military capital. The duarchy was re- 
stored, and the War of the Northern and the Southern Dynasties be- 
gan, which lasted fifty-six years. 




Ashikaga Takanji, Sei-i Tai Shognn. (From a photograph taken from a wooden statne 
in a temple in Kioto.) 

The period 1333-1336, though including little more than two 
years of time, is of great significance as marking the existence of a 
temporary mikadoate. The fact that it lasted so short a time, and 
that the duarchy was again set up on its ruins, has furnished both na- 
tives and foreigners with the absurd and specious, but strongly urged, 
argument that the Government of Japan, by a single ruler from a sin- 
gle centre, is an impossibility, and that the creation of a dual sys- 
tem with a " spiritual " or nominal sovereign in one part of the em- 
pire, and a military or " secular " ruler in another, is a necessity. 



186 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

During the agitation of the question concerning the abolition of the 
dual system, and the restoration of the mikado in 1860-1868, one of 
the chief arguments of the adherents of the shogunate against the 
scheme of the agitators, was the assertion that the events of the period 
1333-1336 proved that the mikado could not alone govern the coun- 
try, and that it must have duarchy. Even after the overthrow of the 
"Tycoon" in 1868, foreigners, as well as natives, who had studied 
Japanese history, fully believed and expected that in a year or two 
the present mikado's Government would be overthrown, and the " Ty- 
coon " return to power, basing their belief on the fact that the mika- 
doate of 1333-1336 did not last. Whatever force such an argu- 
ment might have had when Japan had no foreign relations, and no 
aliens on her soil to disturb the balance between Kioto and Kama- 
kura, it is certain that it counts for naught when, under altered condi- 
tions, more than the united front of the whole empire* is now re- 
quired to cope with the political pressure from without. 

* Certain writers, and one as late as 1873, dispute the right of Japan to be 
called an "empire," and the mikados to he styled "emperor," "inasmuch as they 
[the mikados] sent tribute to the Emperor of China." As matter of fact, none 
of the mikados ever did this, though one shogun (Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, page 195) 
did. Chinese books, and even the official gazettes of Peking, speak of all nations 
— even England, France, and the United States — as "paying tribute" to China, 
and their envoys as "tribute-bearers." Japan has always remained in total polit- 
ical independence of the Middle Kingdom and her Hwang Ti. That Japan is an 
"empire," the absolutism of the mikado, the diversity of her forms of govern- 
mental administration, differing in Liu Kiu (having its lord, or feudal vassal), 
Tezo (territory governed by a special department), and in the main body of the 
empire, besides its varied nationalities— Japanese, Liu Kiuans, and Ainos. This 
expression of sovereignty is graphically conveyed in the two Chinese characters, 
pronounced, in Japanese, Ko-tel (page 39, note), and Hwang Ti in Chinese. The 
Japanese rulers, borrowing their notions of government and imperialism from 
China, as those of modern Europe have from Rome, adopted the title for the 
mikado, who has ever ruled, not only over his own subjects of like blood, but 
over ebisu, or barbarians, and tributary people. When the character Ko is joined 
to Koku (country), we get Ko Koku (which is stamped on the outside of this 
volume), or "The Mikado's Empire," the idea emphasized being personal, or 
that of the mikado as government personified. When Tei is joined to Koku (Tei 
Koku Nihon, the blazon, or distinctive tablet, inscribed with four Chinese char- 
acters over the Japanese section at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia), 
we have the idea of an empire ruled by deity, or divine government — theocracy. 
The fact that Japan, though so much smaller than China, has always claimed 
equal dignity, power, and glory with her mighty neighbor, and the fact that 
there can not be two suns in the same heaven, helps to explain the deep-seated 
rivalry, mutual jealousy, and even contempt, which "the decayed old gentle- 
man" and "the conceited young upstart" feel toward esch other. 



THE WAR OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 187 



XIX. 

THE WAR OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 

The dynasty of the imperial rulers of Japan is the oldest in the 
world. No other family line extends so far back into the remote 
ages as the nameless family of mikados. Disdaining to have a fami- 
ly name, claiming descent, not from mortals, but from the heavenly 
gods, the imperial house of the Kingdom of the Rising Sun occupies 
a throne which no plebeian has ever attempted to usurp. Through- 
out all the vicissitudes of the imperial line, in plenitude of power or 
abasement of poverty, its members deposed or set up at the pleasure 
of the upstart or the political robber, the throne itself has remained 
unshaken. Unclean hands have not been laid upon the ark itself. 
As in the procession of life on the globe the individual perishes, the 
species lives on, so, though individual mikados have been dethroned, 
insulted, or exiled, the prestige of the line has never suffered. The 
loyalty or allegiance of the people has never swerved. The soldier 
who would begin revolution, or who lusted for power, would make 
the mikado his tool ; but, however transcendent his genius and abili- 
ties, he never attempted to write himself mikado. No Japanese Caesar 
ever had his Brutus, nor Charles his Cromwell, nor George his Wash- 
ington. Not even, as in China, did one dynasty of alien blood over- 
throw another, and reign in the stead of a destroyed family. Such 
events are unknown in Japanese annals. The student of this people 
and their unique history can never understand them or their national 
life unless he measures the mightiness of the force, and recognizes the 
place of the throne and the mikado in the minds and hearts of its 
people. 

There are on record instances in which the true heirship was de- 
clared only after bitter intrigue, quarrels, or even bloodshed. In the 
tenth century, Taira no Masakado, disappointed in not being appoint- 
ed Dai Jo Dai Jin, left Kioto, went to Shimosa in the Kuanto, and set 
himself up as Shinno, or cadet of the imperial line, and temporarily 



188 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ruled the eight provinces of the East as a pseudo-mikado.* In 1139, 
the military families of Taira and Minamoto came to blows in Kioto 
over the question of succession between the rival heirs, Shutoku and 
Go-Shirakawa. The Taira being victors, their candidate became mikado. 
During the decay of the Taira, they fled from Kioto, carrying with 
them, as true emperor, with his suite and the sacred insignia, Antoku, 
the child, five years old, who was drowned in the sea when the Taira 
were destroyed. The Minamoto at the same time recognized Gotoba. 

It may be more analogical to call the wars of the Gen and Hei, with 
their white and red flags, the Japanese Wars of the Roses. Theirs was 
the struggle of rival houses. Now, we are to speak of rival dynasties, 
each with the imperial crysanthemum. 

In the time of the early Ashikagas (1336-1390) there were two 
mikados ruling, or attempting to rule, in Japan. The Emperor Go- 
Daigo had chosen his son Kuniyoshi as his heir, but the latter died 
in 1326. Kogen, son of the mikado Go-Fushimi (1299-1301), was 

* Taira no Masakado, or, as we should say, Masakado Taira, was a man of great 
energy and of unscrupulous character. He was at first governor of Shimosa, but 
aspired to rule over all the East. He built a palace on the same model as that 
of the mikado, at Sajima, in Shimotsuke, and appointed officers similar to those 
at the imperial court. He killed his uncle, who stood in the way of his ambition. 
To revenge his father's death, Sadamori, cousin to Masakado, headed two thou- 
sand men, attacked the false mikado, and shot him to death with an arrow, car- 
rying his head as trophy and evidence to Kioto, where it was exposed on the pil- 
lory. Shortly after his decease, the people of Musashi, living on the site of mod- 
ern Tokio, being greatly afflicted by the troubled and angry spirit of their late 
ruler, erected a temple on the site within the second castle enceinte near Kanda 
Bridge, and in that part of the city district of Kanda (God's Field) now occupied 
by the Imperial Treasury Department. This Tiad the effect of soothing the un- 
quiet ghost, and the land had rest ; aud later generations, mindful of the power 
of a spirit that in life ruled all the Kuanto, and in death could afflict or give peace 
to millions at will, worshiped Masakado under the posthumous name of Kanda 
Mio Jin (Illustrious Deity of Kanda), his history having been forgotten, or trans- 
figured into the form of a narrative, which to doubt was sin. When Iyeyasii, in 
the latter end of the sixteenth century, made Yedo his capital, he removed the 
shrine to a more eligible location on the hill in the rear of the Kanda River and 
the Suido, where, later, the university stood, and erected an edifice of great splen- 
dor, surrounded by groves and grounds of surpassing loveliness. This was per- 
haps only policy, to gain the popular favor by honoring the local gods ; but it 
stirred up some jealousy among the "rnikado-reverencers" and students of his- 
tory who knew the facts. Some accused him of treasonable designs like those of 
Masakado. In 1868, when the mikado's troops arrived in Yedo, they rushed to 
the temple of Kanda Mio Jin, and, pulling out the idol or image of the deified 
Masakado, hacked it to pieces with their swords, wishing the same fate to all 
traitors. Thus, after nine centuries, the traitor received a traitor's reward, a 
clear instance of historic justice in the eyes of native patriots. 



THE WAR OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 189 

then made heir. Go-Daigo's third son Moriyoshi, however, as he 
grew up, showed great talent, and his father regretted that he had 
consented to the choice of Kogen, and wished his own son to succeed 
him. He referred the matter to Ho jo at Kamakura, who disapproved 
of the plan. Those who hated Ho jo called Kogen the " false emper- 
or," refusing to acknowledge him. When Nitta destroyed Kamakura, 
and Go-Daigo was restored, Kogen retired to obscurity. No one for 
a moment thought of or acknowledged any one but Go-Daigo as true 
and only mikado. When, however, Ashikaga by his treachery had 
alienated the emperor from him, and was without imperial favor, and 
liable to punishment as a rebel, he found out and set up Kogen as 
mikado, and proclaimed him sovereign. Civil war then broke out. 

Into the details of the war between the adherents of the North- 
ern emperor, Ashikaga, with his followers, on the one side, and Go- 
Daigo, who held the insignia of authority, backed by a brilliant array 
of names famous among the Japanese, on the other, I do not propose 
to enter. It is a confused and sickening story of loyalty and treach- 
ery, battle, murder, pillage, fire, famine, poverty, and misery, such as 
make up the picture of civil wars in every country. Occasionally in 
this period a noble deed or typical character shines forth for the ad- 
miration or example of succeeding generations. Among these none 
have exhibited more nobly man's possible greatness in the hour of 
death than Nitta Yoshisada and Kusunoki Masashige. 

On one occasion the army of Nitta, who was fighting under the flag 
of Go-Daigo, the true emperor, was encamped before that of Ashika- 
ga. To save further slaughter, Nitta sallied out alone, and, approach- 
ing his enemy's camp, cried out : " The war in the country continues 
long. Although this has arisen from the rivalry of two emperors, 
yet its issue depends solely upon you and me. Rather than millions 
of the people should be involved in distress, let us determine the ques- 
tion by single combat." The retainers of Ashikaga prevailed on their 
commander not to accept the challenge. In 1338, on the second day 
of the Seventh month, while marching with about fifty followers to 
assist in investing a fortress in Echizen, he was suddenly attacked in 
a narrow path in a rice-field near Fukui by about three thousand of 
the enemy, and exposed without shields to a shower of arrows. Some 
one begged Nitta, as he was mounted, to escape. " It is not my de- 
sire to survive my companions slain," was his response. Whipping 
up his horse, he rode forward to engage with his sword, making him- 
self the target for a hundred archers. His horse, struck when at full 

13 



190 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

speed by an arrow, fell. Nitta, on clearing himself and rising, was hit 
between the eyes with a white-feathered shaft, and mortally wounded. 
Drawing his sword, he cut off his own head — a feat which the war- 
riors of that time were trained to perform — so that his enemies might 
not recognize him. He was thirty-eight years old. His brave little 
band were slain by arrows, or killed themselves with their own hand, 
that they might die with their master. The enemy could not recog- 
nize Nitta, until they found, beneath a pile of corpses of men who 
had committed hara-kiri, a body on which, inclosed in a damask bag, 
was a letter containing the imperial commission in G-o-Daigo's hand- 
writing, " I invest you with all power to subjugate the rebels." Then 
they knew the corpse to be that of Nitta. His head was carried to 
Kioto, then in possession of Ashikaga, and exposed in public on a 
pillory. The tomb of this brave man stands, carefully watched and 
tended, near Fukui, in Echizen, hard by the very spot where he fell. 
I often passed it in my walks, when living in Fukui in 1871, and no- 
ticed that fresh blooming flowers were almost daily laid upon it — the 
tribute of an admiring people. A shrine and monument in memoriam 
were erected in his native place during the year 1875. 

The brave Kusunoki, after a lost battle at Minatogawa, near Hiogo, 
having suffered continual defeat, his counsels having been set at 
naught, and his advice rejected, felt that life was no longer honorable, 
and solemnly resolved to die in unsullied reputation and with a sol- 
dier's honor. Sorrowfully bidding his wife and infant children good- 
bye, he calmly committed hara-kiri, an example which his comrades, 
numbering one hundred and fifty, bravely followed. 

Kusunoki Masashige was one of an honorable family who dwelt in 
Kawachi, and traced their descent to the great-grandson of the thirty- 
second mikado, Bidatsu (a.d. 572-585). The family name, Kusunoki 
(" Camphor "), was given his people from the fact that a grove of 
camphor-trees adorned the ancestral gardens of the mansion. The 
twelfth in descent was the Vice-governor of Iyo. The father of Masa- 
shige held land assessed at two thousand koku. His mother, desiring 
a child, prayed to the god Bishamon for one hundred days, and Ma- 
sashige was born after a pregnane} 7 of fourteen months. The mother, 
in devout gratitude, named the boy Tamon (the Sanskrit name of Bish- 
amon), after the god who had heard her prayers. The man-child was 
very strong, and at seven could throw boys of fifteen at wrestling. 
He received his education in the Chinese classics from the priests in 
the temple, and exercised himself in all manly and warlike arts. In 



THE WAR OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 191 

his twelfth year he cut off the head of an enemy, and at fifteen stud- 
ied the Chinese military art, and made it the solemn purpose of his 
life to overthrow the Kamakura usurpation, and restore the mikado to 
power. In 1330, he took up arms for Go-Daigo. He was several 
times besieged by the Hojo armies, but was finally victorious with 
Nitta and Ashikaga. When the latter became a rebel, defeated Nitta, 
and entered Kioto in force, Kusunoki joined Nitta, and thrice drove 
out the troops of Ashikaga from the capital. The latter then fled 
to the ^West, and Kusunoki advised the imperialist generals to follow 
them up and annihilate the rebellion. His superiors, with criminal 
levity, neglecting to do this, the rebels collected together, and again 
advanced, with increased strength by land and water, against Kioto, 
having, it is said, two hundred thousand men. Kusunoki's plan of 
operations was rejected, and his advice ignored. With Nitta he was 
compelled to bear the brunt of battle against overwhelming forces at 
Minato gawa, near Hiogo, and was there hopelessly defeated. Kusu- 
noki, now feeling that he had done all that was possible to a subordi- 
nate, and that life was no longer honorable, retired to a farmer's house 
at the village of Sakurai, and there, giving him the sword bestowed 
on himself by the mikado^ admonished his son Masatsura to follow 
the soldier's calling, cherish his father's memory, and avenge his fa- 
ther's death. Sixteen of his relatives, with unquailing courage, like- 
wise followed their master in death. 

Of all the characters in Japanese history, that of Kusunoki Masa- 
shige stands pre-eminent for pureness of patriotism, unselfishness of 
devotion to duty, and calmness of courage. The people speak of him 
in tones of reverential tenderness, and, with an admiration that lacks 
fitting words, behold in him the mirror of stainless loyalty. I have 
more than once asked my Japanese students and friends whom they 
considered the noblest character in their history. Their unanimous 
answer was " Kusunoki Masashige." Every relic of this brave man is 
treasured up with religious care ; and fans inscribed with poems writ- 
ten by him, in fac-simile of his handwriting, are sold in the shops and 
used by those who burn to imitate his exalted patriotism.* His son 
Masatsura lived to become a gallant soldier. 

* I make no attempt to conceal my own admiration of a man who acted ac- 
cording to his light, and faced his soldierly ideal of honor, when conscience and 
all his previous education told him that his hour had come, and that to flinch 
from the suicidal thrust was dishonor and sin. No enlightened Japanese of to- 
day would show himself brave by committing hara-kiri, as the most earnest writers, 



192 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The war, which at first was waged with the clearly defined object 
of settling the question of the supremacy of the rival mikados, gradual' 
ly lost its true character, and finally degenerated into a melee and free 
fight on a national scale. Before peace was finally declared, all the 
original leaders had died, and the prime object had been, in a great 
measure, forgotten in the lust for land and war. Even the rival em- 
perors lost much of their interest, as they had no concern in brawls 
by which petty chieftains sought to exalt their own name, and increase 
their territory by robbing their neighbors. In 1392, an envoy from 
Ashikaga persuaded Go-Kameyama to come to Kioto and hand over 
the regalia to Go-Komatsu, the Northern emperor. The basis of 
peace was that Go-Kameyama should receive the title of Dai Jo 
Tenno (ex-emperor), Go-Komatsu be declared emperor, and the throne 
be occupied alternately by the rival branches of the imperial family. 
The ceremony of abdication and surrender of regalia, on the one 
hand, and of investiture, on the other, were celebrated with due 
pomp and solemnity in one of the great temples in the capital, and 
the war of fifty-six years' duration ceased.* All this redounded to 
the glory and power of the Ashikaga. 

The period 1336-1392 is of great interest in the eyes of all native 
students of Japanese history. In the Dai Nihon Shi, the Southern 
dynasty are defended as the legitimate sovereigns, and the true de- 
scendants of Ten Sho Dai Jin, the sun -goddess; and the Northern 
dynasty are condemned as mere usurpers. The same view was taken 
by Kitabatake Chikafusa, w r ho was the author of the Japanese Red- 
book, who warned the emperor Go-Daigo against Ashikaga, and in 
1339 w^ote a book to prove that Go-Daigo was mikado, and the 
Ashikaga's nominee a usurper. This is the view now held in modern 
Japan, and only those historians of the period who award legitimacy 
to the Southern dynasty are considered authoritative. The Northern 
branch of the imperial family after a few generations became extinct.* 

thinkers, and even soldiers admit. Fukuzawa, the learned reformer and peda- 
gogue, and a chaste and eloquent writer, in one of his works condemns the act 
of Kusunoki, not mentioning him by name, however, as lacking the element of 
true courage, according to the enlightened view. He explains and defends the 
Christian ideas on the subject of suicide. His book created great excitement 
and intense indignation in the minds of the samurai at first; but now he car- 
ries with him the approbation of the leading minds in Japan, especially of the 
students. 

* The names of the "Northern," or "False," emperors are Kogen, Komio, 
Shinko, Go-K6gon, Go-Enyiu, and Go-Komatsu. 



THE ASHIKAGA PERIOD. 193 



XX. 

THE ASHIKAGA PERIOD. 

The internal history of Japan during the period of time covered by 
the actual or nominal rule of the thirteen shoguns of the Ashikaga 
family, from 1336 until 1573, except that portion after the year 1542, 
is not very attractive to a foreign reader. It is a confused picture of 
intestine war. 

Ashikaga Takauji, the founder of the line, was a descendant of the 
Minamoto Yoshikuni, who had settled at Ashikaga, a village in Shi- 
motsuke, in the eleventh century. He died in 1356. His grandson 
Yoshimitsu, called the Great Ashikaga, was made shogun when ten 
years old, and became a famous warrior in the South and West. Aft- 
er the union of the two dynasties, he built a luxurious palace at Kio- 
to, and was made Dai Jo Dai Jin. He enjoyed his honors for one 
year. He then retired from the world to become a shaven monk in 
a Buddhist monastery. 

Under the Hojo, the office of shogun was filled by appointment of 
the imperial court ; but under the Ashikaga the office became heredi- 
tary in this family. As usual, the man with the title was, in nearly 
every case, but a mere figure-head, wielding little more personal power 
than that of the painted and gilded simulacrum of the admiral that 
formerly adorned the prow of our old seventy-four-gun ships. During 
this period the term Kubo sama, applied to the shoguns, and used so 
frequently by the Jesuit fathers, came into use. The actual work of 
government was done by able men of inferior rank. The most noted 
of these was Hosokawa Yoriyuki, who was a fine scholar as well as a 
warrior. It was through his ordering that the young shogun Yoshi- 
mitsu was well trained, and had for his companions noble youths who 
excelled in literary and military skill. This was vastly different from 
Hojo Tokimasa's treatment of the sons of Yoritomo. He attempted 
the reform of manners and administration. He issued five mottoes 
for the conduct of the military and civil officers. They were : 1. Thou 
shalt not be partial in amity or enmity. 2. Thou shalt return neither 



194 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

favor nor vengeance. 3. Thou shalt not deceive, either with a right 
or a wrong [motive]. 4. Thou shalt not hope dishonestly [for a 
bribe]. 5. Thou shalt not deceive thyself. 

The pendulum of power during this period oscillated between Kio- 
to and Kamakura ; a tai (or " great ") shogun ruling at the former, 
and a shogun at the latter place. An officer called the shikken was 
the real ruler of the capital and the central provinces ; and another 
called the kuan-rei (Governor of the Kuanto), of Kamakura and the 
East. War was the rule, peace the exception. Feudal fights ; border 
brawls ; the seizure of lands ; the rise of great clans ; the building, 
the siege, and the destruction of castles, were the staple events. Every 
monastery was now a stronghold, an arsenal, or a camp. The issue 
of a combat or a campaign was often decided by the support which 
the bonzes gave to one or the other party. The most horrible ex 
cesses were committed, the ground about Kioto and Kamakura, botl 
of which were captured and recaptured many times, became like the 
chitama (blood-pits) of the execution-ground. Villages, cities, temples, 
monasteries, and libraries were burned. The fertile fields lay waste, 
blackened by fire, or covered from sight, as with a cloth, by dense 
thickets of tall weeds, which, even in one summer's time, spring with 
astonishing fecundity from the plethoric soil of Japan. The people 
driven from their homes by war returned to find a new wilderness, re- 
sounding with the din of devouring insects. The people of gentle 
birth fled to mountain caves. Education was neglected. The com- 
mon herd grew up in ignorance and misery. Reading and writing, 
except among the priests and nobles, were unknown arts which the 
warriors scorned. War was the only lucrative trade, except that of 
the armorers or sword-makers. Famine followed on the footsteps of 
war, and with pestilence slew her tens of thousands. Pirates on the 
seas ravaged not only the coasts of Japan, but those of China and 
Corea, adding pillage and rapine to the destruction of commerce. 
The Chinese mothers at Ningpo even now are heard to frighten their 
children by mentioning the names of the Japanese pirates. On land 
the peasantry were impressed in military service to build castles or in- 
trenched camps; or, the most daring, becoming robbers, made their 
nests in the mountains and plundered the traveler, or descended upon 
the merchant's store-house. Japan was then the paradise of thieves. 
To all these local terrors were added those gendered in the mind of 
man by the convulsions of nature. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, 
floods, tidal waves, typhoons, and storms seem to have been abnormal- 



THE ASHIEAGA PERIOD. 195 

ly frequent during this period. The public morals became frightfully 
corrupted, religion debased. All kinds of strange and uncouth doc- 
trines came into vogue. Prostitution was never more rampant. It 
was the Golden Age of crime and anarchy. 

The condition of the emperors was deplorable. With no revenues, 
and dwelling in a capital alternately in the possession of one or the 
other hostile army ; in frequent danger from thieves, fire, or starva- 
tion ; exposed to the weather or the dangers of war, the narrative of 
their sufferings excites pity in the mind of even a foreign reader, and 
from the native draws the tribute of tears. One was so poor that he 
depended upon the bounty of a noble for his food and clothing ; an- 
other died in such poverty that his body lay unburied for several 
days, for lack of money to have him interred. The remembrance of 
the wrongs and sufferings of these poor emperors fired the hearts and 
nerved the arms of the men who in 1868 fought to sweep away for- 
ever the hated system by which such treatment of their sovereign be- 
came possible. 

So utterly demoralized is the national, political, and social life of 
this period believed to have been, that the Japanese people make it 
the limbo of all vanities. Dramatists and romancers use it as the 
convenient ground whereon to locate every novel or play, the plot of 
which violates all present probability. The chosen time of the bulk of 
Japanese dramas and novels written during the last century or two is 
that of the late Ashikagas. The satirist or writer aiming at contem- 
porary folly, or at blunders and oppression of the Government, yet 
wishing to avoid punishment and elude the censor, clothes his charac- 
ters in the garb and manners of this period. It is the potter's field 
where all the outcasts and Judases of moralists are buried. By com- 
mon consent, it has become the limbo of playwright and romancer, 
and the scape-goat of chronology. 

The act by which, more than any other, the Ashikagas have earned 
the curses of posterity was the sending of an embassy to China in 
1401, bearing presents acknowledging, in a measure, the authority of 
China, and accepting in return the title of Nippon O, or King of Ja- 
pan. This, which was done by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third of 
the line, was an insult to the national dignity for which he has never 
been forgiven. It was a needless humiliation of Japan to her arro- 
gant neighbor, and done only to exalt the vanity and glory of the 
usurper Ashikaga, who, not content with adopting the style and equi- 
page of the mikado, wished to be made or called a king, and yet dared 



196 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

not usurp the imperial throne.* The punishment of Ashikaga is the 
curse of posterity. In 1853, when the treaty with the United States 
was made, a similar insult to the sovereign and the nation, as well as 
a contemptible deception of the American envoy and foreigners, was 
practiced by the shogun calling himself "Tycoon" (Great King, or 
Sovereign of Japan). In this latter instance, as we know, came not 
the distant anathema of future generations, but the swift vengeance of 
war, the permanent humiliation, the exile to obscurity, of the Tokugawa 
family, and the abolition of the shogunate and the dual system forever. 
It was durino* the first of the last three decades of the Ashikao-a 
period that Japan became known to the nations of Europe; while 
fire-arms, gunpowder, and a new and mighty faith were made known 
to the Japanese nation. 

* The Ashikaga line of shoguns comprised the following : 



1. Takauji 1335-1357 

2. Yoshinori 1358-1367 

3. Yoshmitsu 136S-1393 

4. Yoshimochi 1394-1422 

5. Yoshikadzu 1423-1425 

6. Yoshinori 1428-1440 

7. Yoshikatsu 1441-1448 

8. Yoshimasa 1449-1471 



9. Yoshihisa 1472-1489 

10. Yoshitane 1490-1493 

11. Yoshizumi 1494-1507 

12. Yoshitane (same as 

the 10th) 1508-1520 

13. Yoshiharu 1521-1545 

14. Yoshitern 1546-1567 

15. Yoshiaki 156S-1573 



The term Kubo sama, so often used by the Jesuit and Dutch writers, was not 
an official title of the shogun, but was applied to him by the common people. 
When at first anciently used, it referred to the mikado, or, rather, the mikado 
who had abdicated, or preceded the ruling sovereign ; but later, when the people 
saw in the Kamakura court and its master so close an imitation of the imperial 
style and capital, they began gradually to speak of the shogun as the Kubo, with, 
however, only the general meaning of "the governing power," or the nobleman 
who enjoyed the right of riding to the court in a car, and entering the imperial 
palace. The term was in use until 1868, but was never inherent in any office, be- 
ing rather the exponent of certain forms of etiquette, privilege, and display, than 
of official duties. The Jesuit fathers nearly always speak of the mikado as the 
Dairi (see page 39), and at first erroneously termed the daimios " kings." Later 
on, they seemed to have gained a clear understanding of the various titles and 
official relations. In some works the Kuambaku (with dono, lord, attached) is 
spoken of as "emperor." Nobunaga, who became Nai Dai Jin, is also called 
"emperor." During the supremacy of the military rulers at Kamakura and 
Yedo, the offices and titles, though purely civil, once exclusively given to no- 
bles at the mikado's court, were held by the officials of the shogunate. 

In later chapters, the writer of this work has fallen into the careless and er- 
roneous practice of calling daimios "princes." The term "prince" should be 
employed only in speaking of the sons of the mikado, or members of the imperi- 
al family. "Collectively, the daimios were lords or barons, and all ranks of the 
peerage were represented among them, from the kokushi, or dukes, down to the 
hatamoto, or knights." 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 197 



XXL 

LIFE IN TEE MIDDLE AGES. 

History, as usually written, gives the impression that the normal 
condition of mankind is that of war. Japanese students who take up 
the history of England to read, lay it down convinced that the En- 
glish people are a blood -loving race that are perpetually fighting. 
They contrast their own peaceful country with the countries of Eu- 
rope, to the detriment of the latter. They turn most gladly from the 
monotonous story of battle, murder, and sieges, to Buckle, Guizot, or 
Lecky, that they may learn of the victories no less renowned than 
those of war which mark as mile-stones the progress of the race. I 
greatly fear that from lack of literary skill my readers will say that 
my story of Japan thus far is a story of bloody war; but such, in- 
deed, it is as told in their own histories. Permanent, universal peace 
was unknown in Japan until, by the genius of Iyeyasii in the six- 
teenth century, two centuries and a half of this blessing were secured. 
Nevertheless, in the eight centuries included between the eighth and 
the sixteenth of our era were many, and often lengthened, intervals of 
peace. In many sequestered places the sandal of the warrior and the 
hoof of the war-horse never printed the soil. Peace in the palace, in 
the city, in the village, allowed the development of manners, arts, 
manufactures, and agriculture. In this period were developed the 
characteristic growths of the Japanese intellect, imagination, social 
economy, and manual skill that have made the hermit nation unique 
in the earth and Japanese art productions the wonder of the world. 

In this chapter, I shall simply glance at some of the salient features 
of life in Japan during the Middle Ages. 

The introduction of continental or Chinese civilization into Japan 
was not a simple act of adoption. It was rather a work of selection 
and assimilation. As in this nineteenth century, the Japanese is no 
blind copyist, he improves on what he borrows. Although the travel- 
er from China entering Japan can see in a moment whence the Japa- 
nese have borrowed their civilization, and though he may believe the 



198 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Japanese to be an inferior type to that of the Chinese, he will ac- 
knowledge that the Japanese have improved upon their borrowed ele- 
ments fully as much as the French have improved upon those of 
Roman civilization. Many reflecting foreigners in Japan have asked 
the question why the Japanese are so unlike the Chinese, and why 
their art, literature, laws, customs, dress, workmanship, all bear a stamp 
peculiar to themselves, though they received so much from them ? 
The reason is to be found in the strength and persistence of the 
primal Japanese type of character, as influenced by nature, enabling 
it to resist serious alteration and radical change. The greatest con- 
quests made by any of the imparted elements of continental civiliza- 
tion was that of Buddhism, which became within ten centuries the 
universally popular religion. Yet even its conquests were but partial. 
Its triumph was secured only by its adulteration. Japanese Buddhism 
is a distinct product among the many forms of that Asiatic religion. 
Buddhism secured life and growth on Japanese soil only by being 
Japanized, by being grafted on the original stock of ideas in the Japa- 
nese mind. Thus, in order to popularize the Indian religion, the an- 
cient native heroes and the local gods were all included within the 
Buddhist pantheon, and declared to be the incarnations of Buddha in 
his various forms. A class of deities exist in Japan who are worship- 
ed by the Buddhists under the general name of gongen. They are all 
deified Japanese heroes, warriors, or famous men. Furthermore, many 
of the old rites and ceremonies of Shinto were altered and made use 
of by the bonzes. It may be doubted whether Buddhism could have 
ever been popular in Japan, had it not become thoroughly Japanized. 
Some of the first-fruits of the success of the new religion was the 
erection of temples, pagodas, idols, wayside shrines, monasteries, and 
nunneries; the adoption of the practice of cremation, until then un- 
known ; and the cessation of the slaughter of animals for food. The 
largest and richest of the ecclesiastical structures were in or near Kioto. 
The priests acted as teachers, advisers, counselors, and scribes, besides 
officiating at the altars, shriving the sick, and attending the sepulture 
of the dead. 

Among the orders and sects which grew and multiplied Were many 
similar to those in papal Europe — mendicants, sellers of indulgences, 
builders of shrines and images, and openers of mountain paths. The 
monasteries became asylums for the distressed, afflicted, and perse- 
cuted. In them the defeated soldier, the penniless and the dissatisfied, 
the refugee from the vendetta, could find inviolate shelter. To them 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 199 

the warrior after war, the prince and the minister leaving the palace, 
the honors and pomp of the world, could retire to spend the remnant 
of their days in prayer, worship, and the offices of piety. Often the 
murderer, struck with remorse, or the soldier before his bloody victim, 
would resolve to turn monk. Not rarely did men crossed in love, or the 
offspring of the concubine displaced by the birth of the legitimate son, 
or the grief-stricken father, devote himself to the priestly life. In 
general, however, the ranks of the bonzes were recruited from orphans 
or piously inclined youth, or from overstocked families. To the nun- 
neries, the fertile soil of bereavement, remorse, unrequited love, wid- 
owhood furnished the greater number of sincere and devout nuns. 
In many cases, the deliberate choice of wealthy ladies, or the necessity 
of escaping an uncongenial marriage planned by relatives, undesirable 
attentions, or the lusts of rude men in unsettled times, gave many an 
inmate to the convents. 

In general, however, natural indolence, a desire to avoid the round 
of drudgery at the well, the hoe, or in the kitchen, or as nurse, sent 
the majority of applicants to knock at the convent doors. Occasion- 
ally a noble lady was won to recluse life from the very apartments 
of the emperor, or his ministers, by the eloquence of a bonze who 
was more zealous than loyal. In a few of the convents, only ladies 
of wealth could enter. The monk and nun, in Japanese as in Eu- 
ropean history, romance, and drama, and art, are staple characters. 
The rules of these monastic institutions forbade the eating of fish or 
flesh, the drinking of sake, the wearing of the hair or of fine clothes, 
indulgence in certain sensuous pleasures, or the reading of certain 
books. Fastings, vigils, reflection, continual prayer by book, bell, 
candle, and beads, were enjoined. Pious pilgrimages were undertaken. 
The erection of a shrine, image, belfry, or lantern by begging contri- 
butions was a frequent and meritorious enterprise. There stand to- 
day thousands of these monuments of the piety, zeal, and industry of 
the mediaeval monks and nuns. Those at Nara and Kamakura are the 
most famous. The Kamakura Dai Butsu (Great Buddha) has been 
frequently described before. It is a mass of copper 44 feet high, and 
a work of high art. The image at Nara was first erected in the eighth 
century, destroyed during the civil wars, and recast about seven hun- 
dred years ago. Its total height is 53| feet ; its face is 16 feet long, 
and 9-^ feet wide. The width of its shoulders is 28 T ^ feet. Nine 
hundred and sixty-six curls adorn its head, around which is a halo 78 
feet in diameter, on which are sixteen images, each 8 feet long. The 



200 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



casting of the idol is said to have been tried seven times before it was 
successfully accomplished, and 3000 tons of charcoal were used in the 
operation. The metal, said to weigh 450 tons, is a bronze composed 
of gold (500 pounds), mercury (1954 pounds), tin (16,827 pounds), 
and copper (986,080 pounds). Many millions of tons of copper were 
mined and melted to make these idols. Equally renowned were the 
great temple-bells of Kioto, and of Miidera, and various other monas- 
teries. Some of these were ten feet high, and adorned with sacred 




Tsmple-bell from Kioto, with Dragon -bow, Inscriptions, Representation of Ten-nin 
(angel), and of Buddha in Nirvana on the Lotus. 

texts from the Buddhist Scriptures, and images of heavenly beings, 
or Buddha on the sacred lotus in Nirvana, in high relief. As usual, 
the nimbus, or halo, surrounds his head. Two dragon-heads formed 
the summit, and ear, by which it was hung to its beam by an iron 
Jink. The bell was struck on a raised round spot, by a hammer of 
wood — a small tree-trunk swung loosely on two ropes. After impact, 
the bellman held the beam on its rebound, until the quivering mono- 
tone began to die away. Few sounds are more solemnly sweet than 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 20] 

the mellow music of a Japanese temple-bell. On a still night, a cir 
cumference of twenty miles was flooded by the melody of the great 
bell of Zozoji. The people learned to love their temple-bell as a dear 
friend, as its note changed with the years and moods of life. 

The casting of a bell was ever the occasion of rejoicing and public 
festival. When the chief priest of the city announced that one was 
to be made, the people brought contributions in money, or offerings of 
bronze gold, pure tin, or copper vessels. Ladies gave with their own 
hands the mirrors which had been the envy of lovers, young girls laid 
their silver hair-pins and bijouterie on the heap. When metal enough 
and in due proportion had been amassed, crucibles were made, earth- 
furnaces dug, the molds fashioned, and huge bellows, worked by stand- 
ing men at each end, like a seesaw, were mounted; and, after due 
prayers and consultation, the auspicious day was appointed. The 
place selected was usually on a hill or commanding place. The peo- 
ple, in their gayest dress, assembled in picnic parties, and with song 
and dance and feast waited while the workmen, in festal uniform, 
toiled, and the priests, in canonical robes, watched. The fires were 
lighted, the bellows oscillated, the blast roared, and the crucibles were 
brought to the proper heat and the contents to fiery fluidity, the joy 
of the crowd increasing as each stage in the process was announced. 
When the molten flood was finally poured into the mold, the excite- 
ment of the spectators reached a height of uncontrollable enthusiasm. 
Another pecuniary harvest was reaped by the priests before the crowds 
dispersed, by the sale of stamped kerchiefs or paper containing a holy 
text, or certifying to the presence of the purchaser at the ceremony, 
and the blessing of the gods upon him therefor. Such a token be- 
came an heir-loom ; and the child who ever afterward heard the sol- 
emn boom of the bell at matin or evening was constrained, by filial 
as well as holy motives, to obey and reverence its admonitory call. 
The belfry was usually a separate building apart from the temple, with 
elaborate cornices and roof. (See page 172.) 

In addition to the offices of religion, many of the priests were use- 
ful men, and real civilizers. They were not all lazy monks or idle 
bonzes. By the Buddhist priests many streams were spanned with 
bridges, paths and roads made, shade or fruit trees planted, ponds and 
ditches for purposes of irrigation dug, aqueducts built, unwholesome 
localities drained, and mountain passes discovered or explored. Many 
were the school-masters, and, as learned men, were consulted on sub- 
jects beyond the ken of their parishioners. Some of them, having a 



202 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

knowledge of medicine, acted as physicians. The sciences and arts in 
Japan all owe much to the bonzes who from Corea personally intro- 
duced many useful appliances or articles of food. Several edible veg- 
etables are still named after the priests, who first taught their use. 
The exact sciences, astronomy and mathematics, as well as the human- 
ities, owe much of their cultivation and development to clerical schol- 
ars. In the monasteries, the brethren exercised their varied gifts in 
preaching, study, calligraphy, carving, sculpture, or on objects of ec- 
clesiastical art. 

The monuments by which the memory of many a saintly bonze is 
still kept green exist to-day as treasures on the altars, or in the tem- 
ple or its shady precincts, in winged words or material substance. A 
copy of the Buddhist Scriptures, a sacred classic, in roll or bound vol- 
ume, might occupy a holy penman before his brush and ink-stone for 
years. The manuscript texts which I have often seen in the hall of 
worship on silky paper bound in damask, in Japanese monasteries, 
could not be improved in elegance and accuracy by the printer's art. 
The transcription of a sutra on silk, made to adorn the wall of a shrine, 
\n many cases performed its mission for centuries. 

Another monk excelled in improvisation of sacred stanzas, another 
painted the pictures and scrolls by which the multitude were taught 
by the priest, with his pointer in hand, the mysteries of theology, 
the symbols of worship, the terrors of the graded hells and purgato- 
ries, and the felicities of Nirvana. Another of the fraternity, with 
cunning hand, compelled the wonder of his brethren by his skill in 
carving. He could, from a log which to-day had its bark on, bring 
forth in time the serene countenance of Buddha, the ravishing beauty 
of Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, the scowling terrors of the God 
of War, the frightful visage of Fudo, or the hideous face of the Lord 
of Hell. Another was famous for molding the clay for the carver, the 
sculptor, or the bronze-smith. Many articles of altar furniture, even 
to the incense-sticks and flowers, were often made entirely by clerical 
hands. 

During the Middle Ages, the arts of pottery, lacquering, gilding, 
bronze-casting, engraving and chasing, chisel and punch work, sword- 
making, goldsmith's work, were brought to a perfection never since 
excelled, if indeed it has been equaled. In enameled and inlaid metal 
work the hand of the Japanese artisan has undoubtedly lost its cun- 
ning. Native archaeologists assert that a good catalogue of "lost 
arts" may be made out, notably those of the composition and appli- 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



203 



cation of violet lacquer, and the ancient cloisonne enamel. The deli- 
cacy of tact, freedom of movement, and perfection of finish visible on 
Japanese work, are the result of long hereditary application and con- 
centrated skill. Hidden away in sequestered villages, or occupying the 
same workshop in cities for centuries, generations of craftsmen wrought 
upon one class of objects, until from the workman's hand is born the 
offspring of a long pedigree of thought and dexterity. Japanese an- 
tiquarians fix the date of the discovery of lacquer-ware variously at 
a.d. 724 and 900. Echizen, from the first, has been noted for the 
abundance and luxuriant yield of lacquer - trees, and the skill of her 




Chasing Floral Designs from Nature on Copper. 

workmen in extracting the milk-white virgin sap, which the action of 
the air turns to black, and which by pigments is changed to various 
colors. In the thirteenth century the art of gold-lacquering attained 
the zenith of perfection. Various schools of lacquer art were founded, 
one excelling in landscape, another in marine scenery, or the delinea- 
tion, in gold and silver powder and varnish, of birds, insects, and flow- 
ers. The masters who flourished during the Hojo period still rule the 
pencil of the modern artist. 

Kioto, as the civil and military as well as ecclesiastical capital of 
the empire, was the centre and standard of manners, language, and 



204 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

etiquette, of art, literature, religion, and government. No people are 
more courtly and polished in their manners than the Japanese, and 
my visit to Kioto in 1873 impressed me with the fact that the citizens 
of this proud miako surpass all others in Japan in refined manners, 
and the graces of address and etiquette. The direct influences of 
court life have made themselves perceptibly felt on the inhabitants of 
the city. 

From this centre radiated the multifarious influences which have 
molded the character of the nation. The country priest came as pil- 
grim to the capital as to the Holy City, to strengthen his faith and 
cheer his soul amidst its inspirations, to see the primate and magnates 
of his sect, to pray at the famous shrines, to study in the largest mon- 
asteries, under the greatest lights and holiest teachers. Returning to 
his parish, new sanctity was shed from his rustling robes. His 
brethren welcomed him with awe, and the people thronged to see and 
venerate the holy man who had drunk at the very fountains of the 
faith. The temple coffers grew heavy with the weight of offerings 
because of him. The sons of the noblemen in distant provinces were 
sent to Kioto to be educated, to learn reading and writing from the 
priests, the perfection of the art of war in the army, the etiquette of 
palace life as pages to, or as guests of, the court nobles. The artisan 
or rich merchant from Oshiu or Kadzusa, who had made the journey 
to Kioto, astonished his wondering listeners at home with tales of the 
splendor of the processions of the mikado, the wealth of the temples, 
the number of the pagodas, the richness of the silk robes of the court 
nobles, and the wonders which the Kioto potters and vase -makers, 
sword-forgers, goldsmiths, lacquerers, crystal-cutters, and bronze-mold- 
ers, daily exposed in their shops in profusion. 

In Kioto also dwelt the poets, novelists, historians, grammarians, 
writers, and the purists, whose dicta were laws. By them were writ- 
ten the great bulk of the classic literature, embracing poetry, drama, 
fiction, history, philosophy, etiquette, and the numerous diaries and 
works on travel in China, Corea, and the remote provinces of the 
country, and the books called " mirrors " (Jcagami) of the times, now 
so interesting to the antiquarian student. Occasionally nobles or 
court ladies would leave the luxury of the city, and take up their 
abode in a castle, tower, pagoda, or temple room, or on some mountain 
overlooking Lake Biwa, the sea, or the Yodo River, or the plains of 
Yamato ; and amidst its inspiring scenery, with tiny table, ink-stone 
and brush, pen some prose epic or romance, that has since become an 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



205 



immortal classic. Almost every mansion of the nobles had its " look- 
ing-room," or " Chamber of Inspiring View," whence to gaze upon the 
landscape or marine scenery. Rooms set apart for this aesthetic pleas- 
ure still form a feature of the house of nearly every modern native of 
means. On many a coigne of vantage may be seen also the summer- 
houses or rustic booths, where gather pleasure parties on picnics. 




Picnic Booth, overlooking Lake Biwa. 

In the civil administration of the empire, the chief work was to 
dispense justice, punish offenders, collect taxes, and settle disputes. 
After the rude surveys of those days, the boundaries of provinces and 
departments were marked by inscribed posts of wood or stone. Be- 
fore the days of writing, the same end was secured by charcoal buried 
in the earth at certain points, the durability of which insured the 
mark against decay. The peasants, after the rice-harvest was over, 
brought their tribute, or taxes, with joyful ceremony, to the govern- 
ment granaries in straw bags, packed on horses gayly decorated with 
scarlet housings, and jingling with clusters of small bells. A relic of 
this custom is seen in the bunches of bells suspended by red cotton 

14 



206 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

stuff from the rear of the pack-saddle, which dangle musically from 
the ungainly haunches of the native sumpters. 

From earliest times there existed seki (guard gates or barriers) be- 
tween the various provinces at mountain passes or strategic points. 
As feudalism developed, they grew more numerous. A fence of pal- 
isades, stretched across the road, guarded the path through which, ac- 
cording to time, or orders of the keepers, none could pass with arms, 
or without the pass-word or passport. Anciently they were erected at 
the Hakone and other mountain passes, to keep up the distinction be- 
tween the Ainos and the pure Japanese. The possession of these bar- 
riers was ever an important object of rival military commanders, and 
the shifts, devices, and extraordinary artifices resorted to by refugees, 
disguised worthies, and forbidden characters, furnish the historian, the 
novelist, and dramatist with some of their most thrilling episodes. 

It is related of Yoshitsune, after he had incurred the wrath of 
Yoritomo, that, with Benkei, his servant, he arrived at a guard gate 
kept by some Genji soldiers, who would have been sure to arrest him 
had they discovered his august personality. Disguised as wandering 
priests of the Buddhist sect Yama-bushi, they approached the gate, 
and were challenged by the sentinel, who, like most of his class at 
that time, was ignorant of writing. Benkei, with great dignity, draw- 
ing from his bosom a roll of blank paper, began, after touching it 
reverently to his forehead, to extemporize and read aloud in choicest 
and most pious language a commission from the high-priest at the 
temple of Hokoji, in Kioto, in which stood the great image of Buddha, 
authorizing him to collect money to cast a colossal bell for the tem- 
ple. At the first mention of the name of his reverence the renowned 
priest, so talismanic in all the empire, the soldier dropped down on 
his knees with face to the ground, and listened with reverent awe, un- 
aware that the paper was as blank as the reader's tongue was glib. 
To further lull suspicion, Benkei apologized for the rude conduct of 
his servant-boy, who stood during the reading, because he was only a 
boor just out of the rice-fields; and, giving him a kick, bid him get 
down on his marrow-bones, and not stand up in the presence of a gen- 
tleman and a soldier. The ruse was complete. The illustrious youth 
and his servant passed on. 

Medical science made considerable progress in the course of cent- 
uries. The materia medica, system, practice, and literature of the 
healing art were borrowed from China ; but upon these, as upon most 
other matters, the Japanese improved. Acupuncture, or the introduc- 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 207 

tion of needles into living tissues for remedial purposes, was much im- 
proved by the Japanese. The puncturing needles, as fine as a hair, were 
made of gold, silver, or tempered steel, by experts. The bones, large 
nerves, or blood-vessels were carefully avoided in the process, which 
enjoyed great repute in cases of a peculiar violent colic, to which the 
natives are subject, and which sometimes becomes endemic. On the 
theory that this malady was caused by wind, holes were made in the 
stomach or abdomen, to the mystic number of nine — corresponding to 
the nine apertures of the body. Moxa (Japanese, mohusa ; mo, fire, 
from moyeru, to burn, and kusa, herb, grass), or the burning of a 
small cone of cottony fibres of the artemisia, on the back or feet, was 
practiced as early as the eleventh century, reference being made to it 
in a poem w r ritten at that time. A number of ancient stanzas and 
puns relating to Mount Ibuki, on the sides of which the mugwort 
grows luxuriantly, are still extant. To this day it is an exception to 
find the backs of the common people unscarred with the spots left by 
the moxa. The use of mercury in corrosive sublimate was very an- 
ciently known. The do-sha powder, however, which was said to cure 
various diseases, and to relax the rigid limbs of a corpse, was manu- 
factured and sold only by the bonzes (Japanese, bozu) of the Shin Gon 
sect. It is, and always was, a pious fraud, being nothing but uneffica- 
cious quartz sand, mixed with grains of mica and pyrites.* 

Of the mediaeval sports and pastimes within and without of doors, 
the former were preferred by the weak and effeminate, the latter by 
the hale and strong. Banquets and carousals in the palace were fre- 
quent. The brewing of sake from rice was begun, according to record, 

* See in Titsingh a long account of the wonderful virtues and effects claimed 
for the do-sha ("dosia") powder, and in various other old writers on Japan, who 
have gravely described this humbug. I once tested this substance thoroughly by 
swallowing a tea-spoonful, without experiencing any effects. It might cause, but 
not cure, a headache. I also used up a packageful of the holy sand, purchased at 
an orthodox Shin Gon temple, upon a stiffened corpse that had but a short time 
previous become such, but no unlimbering of the rigid body took place. I also 
fused a quantity of the certified "drug" with some carbonate of soda, dissolved 
the resultant mass in distilled water, and upon adding a few drops of hydrochloric 
acid, a precipitate of gelatinous silica was the result. I also subjected the do-sha 
to careful microscopic examination, finding it only quartz sand, with flakes of 
other minerals. That the "corpse" in my experiment was that of an old dog 
does not affect the validity of the test. It may be remembered also that gelati- 
nous silica is the substance sometimes used to adulterate butter. The main ob- 
jection to such butter is that one can buy sand in a cheaper form ; and the 
same may be said of that nostrum in the ecclesiastical quackery and materia the- 
ologica of Japan called dosha. 



208 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

in the third century, and the office of chief butler even earlier. The 
native sauce, sho-yu, made of fermented wheat and beans, with salt 
and vinegar, which the cunning purveyors of Europe use as the basis 
of their high-priced piquant sauces, was made and used as early as the 
twelfth century. The name of this saline oil (sho, salt ; yu, oil) ap- 
pears as " soy " in our dictionaries, it being one of the three words 
(soy, bonze, moxa) which we have borrowed from the Japanese. At 
the feasts, besides the wine and delicacies to please the palate, music, 
song, and dance made the feast of reason and the flow of soul, while 
witty and beautiful women lent grace and added pleasure to the fes- 
tivities. 

In long trailing robes of white, crimson, or highly figured silk, with 
hair flowing in luxuriance over the shoulders, and bound gracefully in 
one long tress which fell below the waist behind, maids and ladies 
of the palace rained glances and influence upon the favored ones. 
They fired the heart of admirers* by the bewitching beauty of a well- 
formed hand, foot, neck, face, or form decked with whatever added 
charms cosmetics could bestow upon them. Japanese ladies have 
ever been noted for neatness, good taste, and, on proper occasions, 
splendor and luxuriance of dress. With fan, and waving long sleeve, 
the language of secret but outwardly decorous passion found ample ex- 
pression. Kisses, the pressure of the hand, and other symbols of love 
as expressed in other lands, were then, as now, unknown. In humble 
life also, in all their social pleasures the two sexes met together to 
participate in the same delights, with far greater freedom than is 
known in Asiatic countries. As, however, wives or concubines had 
not always the attractions of youth, beauty, wit, maidenly freshness, 

* The following is the native ideal of a Japanese woman, given by a young 
Japanese gentleman at the International Congress of Orientalists held at Paris 
in 1873: "I will commence, gentlemen, with the head, which is neither too large 
nor too small. Figure to yourself large black eyes, surmounted by eyebrows 
of a strict arch, bordered by black lashes ; a face oval, white, very slightly rose-col- 
ored on the cheeks, a straight high nose; a small, regular, fresh mouth, whose 
thin lips disclose, from time to time, white teeth ranged regularly ; a narrow 
forehead, bordered by long, black hair, arched with perfect regularity. Join 
this head by a round neck to a body large, but not fat, with slender loins, hands 
and feet small, but not thin; a breast whose swell (saillie) is not exaggerated. 
Add to these the following attributes : a gentle manner, a voice like the night- 
ingale, which makes one divine its artlessness; a look at once lively, sweet, 
gracious, and always charming; witty words pronounced distinctly, accompa- 
nied by charming smiles; an air sometimes calm, gay, sometimes thoughtful, and 
always majestic; manners noble, simple, a little proud, but without ever incur- 
ring the accusation of presumption." 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



209 



or skill at the koto, the geisha, or singing-girl, then as now, served the 
sake, danced, sung, and played, and was rewarded by the gold or gifts 
of the host, or perhaps became his Hagar. The statement that the 
empress was attended only by " vestals who had never beheld a man " 
is disproved by a short study of the volumes of poetry, amorous and 
otherwise, written by them, and still quoted as classic. As to the 
standard of virtue in those days, I believe it was certainly not below 
that of the later Roman empire, and I am inclined to believe it was 
far above it. 

In the court at Kioto, besides games of skill or chance in the house, 
were foot -ball, cock-fighting, falconry, horsemanship, and archery. 
The robust games of the military classes were hunting the boar, deer, 
bear, and smaller game. Hunting by falcons, which had been intro- 
duced by some Corean em- 
bassadors in the time of 
Jingu Kogo, was almost as 
extensively practiced as in 
Europe, almost every feu- 
dal lord having his perch of 
falcons. Fishing by cor- 
morants, though a useful 
branch of the fisherman' 
industry, was also indulged 
in for pleasure. The se- 
vere exercise of hunting for 
sport, however, never be- 




came as absorbing and pop- 
ular in Japan as in Europe, 
being confined more to the 
professional huntsman, and 
the seeker for daily food. 



Court Lady in Kioto. 



210 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The court ladies shaved off their eyebrows, and painted two sable 
bars or spots on the forehead resembling false eyebrows. In addition 
to the gentle tasks of needle-work and embroidery, they passed the 
time in games of chess, checkers, painted shells, and a diversion pe- 
culiar to the palace, in which the skill of the player depended on 
her sensitiveness in appreciating perfumes, the necessary articles being 
vials of fragrant extracts. Their pets were the peculiar little dogs 
called chin. They stained their teeth black, like the women of the 
lower classes ; an example which the nobles of the sterner sex followed, 
as they grew more and more effeminate. One of the staple diversions 
of both sexes at the court was to write poetry, and recite it to each 
other. The emperor frequently honored a lady or noble by giving 
the chosen one a subject upon which to compose a poem. A happy 
thought, skillfully wrought stanza, a felicitous grace of pantomime, 
often made the poetess a maid of honor, a concubine, or even an 
empress, and the poet a minister or councilor. 

Another favorite means of amusement was to write and read or tell 
stories — the Scheherezade of these being a beautiful lady, who often 
composed her own stories. The following instance is abbreviated 
from the Onna Dai Gaku (" Woman's Great Study ") : Ise no Taiyu 
was a daughter of Sukeichika, the mikado's minister of festivals, and 
a highly accomplished lady. None among the ladies of the court could 
equal her. One day a branch of luxuriant cherry-blossoms was 
brought from Nara. The emperor gave it to her, and asked her to 
extemporize a verse. She did so, and the courtiers were all astonished 
at the beauty and delicate sentiment of the verse. 

Here is another: Murasaki Shikibu was the daughter of the lord 
of Echizen. One day a lady of Kamo asked if there was any new 
entertaining literature or novels, as the empress - dowager wished to 
read something new. The lady invited Murasaki to write some sto- 
ries. She, knowing that the great Chinese scholar Shomei completed 
his collection of the essays of ancient writers by building a high house 
and secluding himself in it, had a high tower erected at Ishiyama 
overlooking Lake Biwa, and affording a glorious view of the mount- 
ains, especially in the moonlight. There she retired, and one night 
when the full moon shone upon the waters she was so inspired that 
she wrote in one night two chapters of the Genji Monogatari* a book 

* The various forms of inarticulate language, by pantomime, flowers, art, and 
symbolism, in Japan differ in many respects from those expressed by us. Among 
the gestures partly or wholly unknown to them are nictation, kissing, shaking 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 211 

containing fifty-four chapters in all, which she finished in a few weeks. 
She presented it to the empress-dowager, who gave it to the mikado. 
To this day it is a' classic. 

Sei Shonagon was the daughter of Kiyowara no Motosuke. She was 
one of the imperial concubines. She was well read in Japanese and 
Chinese literature, and composed poetry almost from infancy, having 
a wonderful facility of improvisation. One day, after a fall of snow, 
she looked out from the southern door of the palace. The emperor, 
having passed round the wine-cup to his lords and ladies at the usual 
morning assembly of the courtiers and maids of honor, said, " How is 

hands, shrugging the shoulders, and the contemptuous gyratory motion of the 
thumb set against the nose, with the fingers upright. Flirtation is practiced not 
by the use of the fan or the handkerchief (which is of paper), but with a wave of 
the right hand, with palms downward, or by the fair charmer waving her long 
sleeve. Instead of winking, they convey the same meaning by twitching the left 
corner of the mouth, or rolling the eyeballs to the right or left. The girls simper 
by letting their eyelids fall, and the language of woman's eyes is in other respects 
the same as with us, as Japanese poetry shows. Jealousy is indicated by the 
erecting the two forefingers on the forehead, in allusion to the monster which in 
Japan has horns and black hide, but not green eyes. A jilt who wishes to give 
her lover "the mitten" sends him a branch of maple, the color (iro) of whose 
leaves has changed, like her love (iro). 

Turning up the nose and curling the lip in scorn are achieved with masterly 
skill. In agony, the hands are not clasped, but put upright, palm to palm, at 
length. People shake their heads to mean " no," and nod them to mean "yes." 

Among the peculiarities in their code of etiquette, eructation is permissible in 
company at all times, and after a hearty meal is rather a compliment to the host. 
On the other hand, to attend to the requirements of nasal etiquette, except with 
face apart from the company, is very bad manners. Toothpicks must not be 
used, but in a semi-secret way, and with the left hand covering the mouth. At 
banquets, the fragrant bark on these is carved ornamentally, and under a shaving 
loosened from the white wood is written in tiny script a pun, witticism, bon- 
mot, or sentimental proposal, like that on the "secret papers" on bonbons at 
our refreshments. At feasts or daily meals, all such matters as carving, slicing, 
etc., are looked upon as out of place, and properly belonging to servant's work 
and in the kitchen. In clothing, the idea that garments ought to be loose and 
flowing, so as to conceal the shape of the body and its parts, and give no striking 
indication of sex, as among us, was never so general as in China. In hair-dress- 
iug, besides marking age and sex, the female coiffure had a language of its own. 
Generally a keen observer could distinguish a maiden, a married wife, a widow 
who was willing to marry the second time, and the widow who intended never 
to wed again. As marks of beauty, besides the ideals spoken of on page 30, large 
ears were thought desirable, especially those with long lobes. Fat people were 
much admired, and a rotund physique considered a good gift of nature. Many of 
the striking details of military and social etiquette, such as falling on hands and 
knees, with forehead on the floor or on the prone hand, and the simultaneous 
noisy sucking-in of the breath, which sounds and seems so ridiculous to the for- 
eigner, are very ancient. 



212 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the snow of Kuroho ?" No one else understood the meaning, but 
Sei Shonagon instantly stepped forward and drew up the curtains, 
revealing the mountains decked in fresh-fallen snow. The emperor 
was delighted, and bestowed upon her a prize. Sei Shonagon had 
understood his allusion to the line in an ancient poem which ran thus: 

"The snow of Kuroho is seen by raising the curtains." 

Once when a certain kuge was traveling in a province, he came, on 
a moonlight night, to a poor village in which the cottages had fallen 
into picturesque decay, the roofs of which gleamed like silver. The 
sight of the glorified huts inspired the noble with such a fine frenzy 
that he sat up all night gazing rapturously on the scene, anon compos- 
ing stanzas. He was so delighted that he planned to remain in the 
place several days. The next morning, however, the villagers, hear- 
ing of the presence of so illustrious a guest among them, began busily 
to repair the ruin, and to rethatch the roofs. The kuge, seeing all 
his poetic visions dispelled by this vandal industry, ordered his bullock- 
car, and was off, disgusted. 

During the first centuries of writing in Japan, the spoken and the 
written language were identical. With the study of the Chinese liter- 
ature, and the composition of works by the native literati almost ex- 
clusively in that language, grew up differences between the colloquial 
and literary idiom and terminology. The infusion of a large number 
of Chinese words into the common speech steadily increased; while 
the learned affected a pedantic style of conversation, so interlarded 
with Chinese words, names, and expressions, that to the vulgar their 
discourse was almost unintelligible. Buddhism also made Chinese the 
vehicle of its teachings, and the people everywhere became familiar, 
not only with its technical terms, but with its stock phrases and forms 
of thought. To this day the Buddhist, or sham-religious, way of talking 
is almost a complete tongue in itself, and a good dictionary always 
gives the Buddhistic meaning of a word separately. In reading or 
hearing Japanese, the English-speaking resident continually stumbles 
on his own religious cant and orthodox expressions, which he believes 
to be peculiar to his own atmosphere, that have a meaning entirely 
different from the natural sense: "this vale of tears," "this evil 
world," " gone to his reward," " dust and ashes," " worm of the dust," 
and many phrases which so many think are exclusively Christian or 
evangelical, are echoed in Japanese. So much is this true, that the 
missionaries, in translating religious books, are at first delighted to 



LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 213 

find exact equivalents for many expressions desirable in technical 
theology, or for what may fairly be termed pious slang, but will not 
use them, for fear of misleading the reader, or rather of failing to 
lead him out of his old notions into the new faith which it is desired 
to teach. So general have the use and affectation of Chinese become, 
that in many instances the pedantic Chinese name or word has been 
retained in the mouths of the people, while the more beautiful native 
term is almost lost. In general, however, only the men were devoted 
to Chinese, while the cultivation of the Japanese language was left to 
the women. This task the women nobly discharged, fully maintain- 
ing the credit of the native literature. Mr. W. G. Aston says, " I be- 
lieve no parallel is to be found in the history of European letters, to 
the remarkable fact that a very large proportion of the best writings 
of the best age of Japanese literature was the work of women." The 
Genji Monogatari is the acknowledged standard of the language for 
the period to which it belongs, and the parent of the Japanese novel. 
This, with the classics Ise Monogatari and Makura Zoshi, and much 
of the poetry of the time, are the works of women. 

It is to be noted that the borrowed Chinese words were taken en- 
tirely from the written, not the colloquial, language of China, the lat- 
ter having never been spoken by the Japanese, except by a few in- 
terpreters at Nagasaki. The Japanese literary style is more concise, 
and retains archaic forms. The colloquial abounds in inter jectional 
and onomatopoetic words and particles, uses a more simple inflection 
of the verb, and makes profuse use of honorific and polite terms. 
Though these particles defy translation, they add grace and force to 
the language. As in the English speech, the child of the wedded Saxon 
and Norman, the words which express the wants, feelings, and concerns 
of every-day life — all that is deepest in the human heart — are for the 
most part native ; the technical, scientific, and abstract terms are for- 
eign. Hence, if we would find the fountains of the musical and beau- 
tiful language of Japan, we must s,eek them in the hearts, and hear 
them flow from the lips, of the mothers of the Island Empire. Among 
the anomalies with which Japan has surprised or delighted the world 
may be claimed that of woman's achievements in the domain of letters. 
It was woman's genius, not man's, that made the Japanese a litera- 
ry language. Moses established the Hebrew, Alfred the Saxon, and 
Luther the German tongue in permanent form ; but in Japan, the 
mobile forms of speech crystallized into perennial beauty under the 
touch of woman's hand. 



214 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XXII. 

THE GROWTH AND CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 

Japan, of all the Asiatic nations, seems to have brought the feu- 
dal system to the highest state of perfection. Originating and devel- 
oping at the same time as in Europe, it became the constitution of 
the nation and the condition of society in the seventeenth century. 
When in Europe the nations were engaged in throwing off the feudal 
yoke and inaugurating modern government, Japan was riveting the 
fetters of feudalism, which stood intact until 1871. From the begin- 
ning of the thirteenth century, it had come to pass that there were 
virtually two rulers in Japan, and as foreigners, misled by the Hol- 
landers at Deshima, supposed, two emperors. 

The growth of feudalism in Japan took shape and form from the 
early division of the officials into civil and military. As we have seen, 
the Fujiwara controlled all the civil offices, and at first, in time of 
emergency, put on armor, led their troops to battle, and braved the 
dangers of war and the discomforts of the camp. In time, however, 
this great family, yielding to that sloth and luxury which ever seem, 
like an insidious disease, to ruin greatness in Japan, ceased to take the 
field themselves, and delegated the uncongenial tasks of war to certain 
members of particular noble families. Those from which the greatest 
number of shoguns were appointed were the Taira and Minamoto, that 
for several centuries held the chief military appointments. As luxury, 
corruption, intrigue, and effeminacy increased at the capital, the diffi- 
culty of keeping the remote parts of the empire in order increased, 
especially in the North and East. The War Department became dis- 
organized, and the generals at Kioto lost their ability to enforce their 
orders. 

Many of the peasants, on becoming soldiers, had, on account of their 
personal valor or merit, been promoted to the permanent garrison of 
household troops. Once in the gay capital, they learned the details of 
intrigue and politics. Some were made court pages, or attendants on 
men of high rank, and thus learned the routine of official duty. They 



THE GROWTH AND CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 215 

caught the tone of life at court, where every man was striving for 
rank and his own glory, and they were not slow to imitate their au- 
gust examples. Returning to their homes with the prestige of having 
been in the capital, they intrigued for power in their native districts, 
and gradually obtained rule over them, neglecting to go when duty 
called them to Kioto, and ignoring the orders of their superiors in the 
War Department. The civil governors of the provinces dared not to 
molest, or attempt to bring these petty tyrants to obedience. Having 
armor, horses, and weapons, they were able to train and equip their 
dependents and servants, and thus provide themselves with an armed 
following. 

Thus was formed a class of men who called themselves warriors, 
and were ever ready to serve a great leader for pay. The natural con- 
sequence of such a state of society was the frequent occurrence of vil- 
lage squabbles, border brawls, and the levying of black-mail upon de- 
fenseless people, culminating in the insurrection of a whole province. 
The disorder often rose to such a pitch that it was necessary for the 
court to interfere, and an expedition was sent from Kioto, under the 
command of a Taira or Minamoto leader. The shogun, instead of 
waiting to recruit his army in the regular manner — a process doubt- 
ful of results in the disorganized state of the War Department and 
of the country in general — had immediate recourse to others of 
these veteran " warriors," who were already equipped, and eager for a 
fray. 

Frequent repetition of the experience of the relation of brothers in 
arms, of commander and commanded, of rewarder and rewarded, grad- 
ually grew into that of lord and retainers. Each general had his spe- 
cial favorites and followers, and the professional soldier looked upon 
his commander as the one to whom his allegiance was directly due. 
The distant court at Kioto, being utterly unable to enforce its author- 
ity, put the whole power of quieting the disturbed districts, whenever 
the disorder increased beyond the ability of the civil magistrate to re- 
press it, into the hands of the Minamoto and Taira. These families 
thus became military clans and acquired enormous influence, enjoyed 
the monopoly of military patronage, and finally became the virtual 
rulers of the land. 

The power of the sword was, as early as the twelfth century, lost to 
the court, which then attempted, by every means in its power, to check 
the rising influence of the military families and classes. They began 
by denying them high rank, thus putting them under social ban. 



216 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

They next attempted to lay an interdict upon the warriors by forbid- 
ding them to ally themselves with either the Taira or the Minamoto. 
This availed nothing, for the warriors knew who rewarded them. 
They then endeavored, with poor success, to use one family as a check 
upon the other. Finally, when the Minamoto, Yoriyoshi, and Yoshiiye 
conquered all the north of Hondo, and kept in tranquillity the whole 
of the Kuanto for fifteen years, even paying governmental expenses 
from their private funds, the court ignored their achievements. When 
they petitioned for rewards to be bestowed on their soldiers, the dila- 
tory and reluctant, perhaps jealous, nobles composing the court not 
only neglected to do so, but left them without the imperial commis- 
sion, and dishonored their achievements by speaking of them as "pri- 
vate feuds." Hence they took the responsibility, and conferred upon 
their soldiers grants of the conquered land in their own name. The 
Taira followed the same policy in the south and west. 

When Yoritomo became Sei-i Tai Shogun at Kamakura, erected the 
dual system, and appointed a military with a civil governor of each 
province in the interest of good order, feudalism assumed national pro- 
portions. Such a distribution soon ceased to be a balance, the milita- 
ry pan in the scale gained weight and the civil lost until it kicked the 
beam. At the end of the Ho jo domination, the court had lost the 
government of the provinces, and the kuge (court nobles) had been 
despoiled and impoverished by the buke (military). So thoroughly 
had feudalism become the national polity, that in the temporary mika- 
doate, 1534-1536, the Emperor Go-Daigo rewarded those who had re- 
stored him by grants of land for them to rule in their own names as 
his vassals. 

Under the Ashikagas, the hold of even the central military author- 
ity, or chief daimio, was lost, and the empire split up into fragments. 
Historians have in vain attempted to construct a series of historical 
maps of this period. The pastime was war — a game of patchwork in 
which land continually changed possessors. There was no one great 
leader of sufficient power to overawe all ; hence might made right ; 
and whoever had the ability, valor, or daring to make himself pre-emi- 
nent above his fellows, and seized more land, his power would last 
until he was overcome by a stronger, or his family decayed through 
the effeminacy of his descendants. During this period, the great clans 
with whose names the readers of the works of the Jesuits and Dutch 
writers are familiar, or which have been most prominent since the 
opening of the empire, took their rise. They were those of Hosokawa 



THE GROWTH AND CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 217 

Uyesugi, Satake, Takeda, the " later Hojo of Odawara," Mori, Otomo, 
Shimadzii, Riuzoji, Ota, and Tokugawa. 

As the authority of the court grew weaker and weaker, the alle- 
giance which all men owed to the mikado, and which they theoretic- 
ally acknowledged, was changed into loyalty to the military chief. 
Every man who bore arms was thus attached to some " great name " 
(daimio), and became a vassal (kerai). The agricultural, and gradual- 
ly the other classes, also put themselves, or were forcibly included, 
under the protection of some castle lord or nobleman having an armed 
following. The taxes, instead of being collected for the central gov- 
ernment, flowed into the treasury of the local rulers. This left the 
mikado and court without revenue. The kuge, or Kioto nobles, were 
thus stripped of wealth, until their poverty became the theme for the 
caricaturist. Nevertheless, the eye of their pride never dimmed. In 
their veins, they knew, ran the blood of the gods, while the daimios 
were only " earth- thieves," and the parvenus of feudalism. They 
still cherished their empty titles ; and to all students of history their 
poverty was more honorable than all the glitter of the shogun's train, 
or the splendor of the richest daimio's mansion. 

The daimios spent their revenues on their retainers, their personal 
pleasures, and in building castles. In almost every feudal city, or place 
of strategic importance, the towers, walls, and moats of these charac- 
teristic specimens of Japanese architecture could be seen. The strict- 
est vigilance was maintained at the castle-gates, and a retainer of an- 
other daimio, however hospitably entertained elsewhere, was never al- 
lowed entrance into the citadel. A minute code of honor, a rude 
sort of chivalry, and an exalted sense of loyalty were the growth of 
the feudal system. 

Many of the mediaeval military customs were very interesting. 
During this period the habit originated of the men shaving the hair 
off their temples and from the middle of the scalp, and binding the 
long cue into a top-knot, which was turned forward and laid on the 
scalp. The object of this was to keep the hair out of the eyes during 
battle, and also to mark the wearer as a warrior. Gradually it became 
a universal custom, extending to all classes. 

When, in 1873, the reformers persuaded the people to cut off their 
knots and let their hair grow, the latter refused to " imitate the for- 
eigners," and supposed they were true conservatives, when, in reality, 
the ancient Japanese knew nothing of shaven faces and scalps, or of 
top -knots. The ancient warriors wore mustaches, and even beards. 



218 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The practice of keeping the face scrupulously bare, until recently so 
universally observed except by botanists and doctors, is comparatively 
modern. 

The military tactics and strategic arts of the Japanese were ancient- 
ly copied from the Chinese, but were afterward modified as the nature 
of the physical features of their country and the institutions of feud- 
alism required. No less than seven distinct systems were at different 
times in vogue ; but that perfected by Takeda and Uyesugi, in the 
Ashikaga period, finally bore off the palm. These tactics continued 
to command the esteem and practice of the Japanese until the revolu- 
tion wrought by the adoption of the European systems in the present 
century. The surface of the country being so largely mountainous, 
uneven, and covered with rice-swamps, cavalry were but little employ- 
ed. A volley of arrows usually opened the battle, followed by a gen- 
eral engagement along the whole line. Single combats between com- 
manders of hostile armies were of frequent occurrence. "When they 
met on the field, their retainers, according to the strict etiquette of 
war, gave no aid to either, but encouraged them by shouts, as they 
called out each other's names and rushed to the combat. The battle 
slackened while the leaders strove, the armies becoming spectators. 
The victor cut off the head of his antagonist, and, holding it up, 
shouted his name and claimed the victory. The triumph or defeat of 
their leaders often decided the fate of the army. Vengeance against 
the victor was not permitted to be taken at the time, but must be 
sought again, the two armies again joining battle. The fighting over, 
those who had slain distinguished personages must exhibit their heads 
before their chiefs, who bestowed rewards upon them. This practice 
still continues; and during the expedition in Formosa in 1874, the 
chief trophies were the heads of the Boutan cannibals; though the 
commander, General Saigo, attempted to abolish the custom. Who- 
ever saved his chieftain's life on the field was honored with the place 
of highest rank in the clan. These customs had a tremendous in- 
fluence in cultivating valor and a spirit of loyalty in the retainer to- 
ward the prince. The meanest sddier, if brave and faithful, might 
rise to the highest place of honor, rank, emolument, and influence. 
The bestowal of a reward, the investiture of a command, or military 
promotion, was ever an occasion of impressive ceremony. 

Even in time of peace the samurai never appeared out-of-doors 
unarmed, invariably wearing their two swords in their girdle. The 
offensive weapons — spears long and short, the bows, arrows, and quiv- 



THE GROWTH AND CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 219 

er, and battle-axes — were set on their butts on the porch or vestibule 
in front of the house. Within doors, in the tokonoma, or recess, were 
ranged in glittering state the cuirass, helmet, greaves, gauntlets, and 
chain-mail. Over the sliding partitions, on racks, were the long hal- 
berds, which the women of the house were trained to use in case of 
attack during the absence of the men. 

The gate of a samurai, or noble's, house was permanently guarded by 
his armed retainers, who occupied the porter's lodge beside it. Stand- 
ing upright and ready were three long instruments, designed to en- 
tangle, throw down, and pin to the earth a quarrelsome applicant. 
Familiar faces passed unchallenged, but armed strangers were held at 
bay till their business was known. A grappling-iron, with barbed 
tongues turned in every direction, making a ball of hooks like an iron 
hedgehog, mounted on a pike-staff ten feet long, thrust into the Japa- 
nese loose clothing, sufficed to keep at a wholesome length any swash- 
buckler whose sword left its sheath too easily. Another spiked weapon, 
like a double rake, could be thrust between his legs and bring him to 
the earth. A third, shaped like a pitchfork, could hold him helpless 
under its wicket arch. Three heavy quarter staves were also ready, to 
belabor the struggling wight who would not yield, while swords on 
the racks hung ready for the last resort, or when intruders came in 
numbers. On rows of pegs hung wooden tickets about three inches 
square, branded or inscribed with the names of the retainers and serv- 
ants of the lord's house, which were handed to the keeper of the gate 
as they passed in or out. 

The soldiers wore armor made of thin scales of iron, steel, hardened 
hide, lacquered paper, brass, or shark -skin, chain -mail, and shields. 
The helmet was of iron, very strong, and lined within by buckskin. 
Its flap of articulated iron rings drooped well around the shoulders. 
The visor was of thin lacquered iron, the nose and mouth pieces being 
removable. The eyes were partially protected by the projecting front 
piece. A false mustache was supposed to make the upper lip of the 
warrior dreadful to behold. On the frontlet were the distinguishing 
symbols of the man, a pair of horns, a fish, an eagle, dragon, buck- 
horns, or flashing brass plates of various designs. Some of the hel- 
mets were very tall. Kato Kiy omasa's was three feet high. On the 
top was a hole, in which a pennant was thrust, or an ornament shaped 
like a pear inserted. The " pear-splitter " was the fatal stroke in com- 
bat and the prize-cut in fencing. Behind the corslet on the back was 
another socket, in which the clan flag was inserted. The breastplate 



220 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

was heavy and tough ; the arms, legs, abdomen, and thighs were pro- 
tected by plates joined by woven chains. Shields were often used; 
and for forlorn-hopes or assaults, cavalrymen made use of a stuffed bag 
resembling a bolster, to receive a volley of arrows. Besides being 
missile-proof, it held the arrows as spoils. On the shoulders, hanging 
loosely, were unusually wide and heavy brassarts, designed to deaden 
the force of the two-handed sword-stroke. Greaves and sandals com- 
pleted the suit, which was laced and bound with iron clamps, and 
cords of buckskin and silk, and decorated with crests, gilt tassels, and 
glittering insignia* Suits of armor were of black, white, purple, crim- 
son, violet, green, golden, or silver colors. 




Kusunoki Masatsura. (From a photograph taken from a native drawing.) 

The rations of the soldiers were rice, fish, and vegetables. Instead 
of tents, huts of straw or boughs were easily erected to form a camp. 
The general's head - quarters were inclosed by canvas, stretched on 
posts six feet high, on which his armorial bearings were wrought. 
The weapons were bows and arrows, spear, sword, and, rarely, battle- 
axes and bow-guns ; for sieges, fire-arrows. The general's scabbard was 
of tiger-skin. Supplies of this material were obtained from Corea, 
where the animal abounds. His baton was a small lacquered wand, 
with a cluster of strips of thick white paper dependent from the point. 
Flags, banners, and streamers were freely used ; and a camp, castle, or 
moving army, in time of war, with its hundreds and thousands of flags, 
presented a gay and lively appearance. Drums, hard-wood clappers, 
and conch-shells sounded the reveille, the alarm, the onset, or the re- 
treat. 

Owing to the nature of the ground, consisting chiefly of mountains 
and valleys, or plains covered with rice-swamps intersected by narrow 



THE GROWTH AND CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 221 

paths, infantry were usually depended upon. In besieging a castle, 
the intrenchments of the investing army consisted chiefly of a line of 
palisades or heavy planks, propped up from within by hinged supports, 
at an angle of forty-five degrees, behind which the besiegers fought or 
lived in camp life, while sentinels paced at the gates. Lookouts were 
posted on overlooking hills, in trees, or in towers erected for the pur- 
pose. Sometimes huge kites able to sustain a man were flown, and a 
bird's-eye view of the interior of the enemy's castle thus obtained. 
Fire, treachery, stratagem, starvation, or shooting at long range having 
failed to compel surrender, an assault took place, in which the gates 
were smashed in, or the wails scaled. Usually great loss resulted be- 
fore the besiegers were driven off, or were victorious. Rough surgery 
awaited the wounded. An arrow-barb was usually pulled out by a 
jerk of the pincers. A sabre-cut was sewed or bound together with 
tough paper, of which every soldier carried a supply. The wonderful- 
ly adhesive, absorptive, and healing power of the soft, tough, quickly 
wet, easily hardening, or easily kept pliable, Japanese paper made ex- 
cellent plasters, bandages, tourniquets, cords, and towels. In the dress- 
ing of wounds, the native doctors to this day, as I have often had oc- 
casion to witness, excel. 

Seppuku (belly-cut) or hara-kiri also came into vogue about the 
time of the beginning of the domination of the military classes. At 
first, after a battle, the vanquished wounded fell on their swords, drove 
them through their mouth or breast, or cut their throats. Often a fa- 
mous soldier, before dying, would flay and score his own face beyond 
recognition, so that his enemies might not glory over him. This grew 
into a principle of honor ; and frequently the unscathed survivors, de- 
feated, and feeling the cause hopeless, or retainers whose master was 
slain, committed suicide. Hence arose, in the Ashikaga period, the 
fashion of wearing two swords ; one of which, the longer, was for en- 
emies ; the other, shorter, for the wearer's own body. The practice of 
hara-kiri as a judicial sentence and punishment did not come into 
vogue until in the time of the Tokugawas. 

Thrust into a tiny scabbard at the side of the dirk, or small sword, 
was a pair of chopsticks to eat with in camp. Anciently these were 
skewers, to thrust through the top-knot of a decapitated enemy, that the 
head might be easily carried. Besides, or in lien of them, was a small 
miniature sword, ko-katana (little sword), or long, narrow knife. Al- 
though this was put to various trivial uses, such as those for which we 
employ a penknife, yet its primary purpose was that of the card of 

15 



222 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the owner. Each sword was adorned with some symbol or crest, 
which served to mark the clan, family, or person of the owner. 

The Satsuma men wore swords with red-lacquered scabbards. Later, 
the Tokugawa vassals, who fought in the battle of Sekigahara, were 
called " white hilts," because they wore swords of extraordinary length, 
with white hilts. The bat, the falcon, the dragon, lion, tiger, owl, and 
hawk, were among the most common designs wrought in gold, lacquer, 
carving, or alloy on the hilts, handles, or scabbard ; and on the ko-ka- 
tana was engraved the name of the owner. 

Feudalism was the mother of brawls innumerable, and feuds be- 
tween families and clans continually existed. The wife whose hus- 
band was slain by the grudge-bearer brought up her sons religiously 
to avenge their father's death. The vendetta was unhindered by law 
and applauded by society. The moment of revenge selected was 
usually that of the victim's proudest triumph. After promotion to 
office, succession to patrimony, or at his marriage ceremony, the sword 
of the avenger did its bloody work. Many a bride found herself a 
widow on her wedding-night. Many a child became an orphan in 
the hour of the father's acme of honor. When the murder was secret, 
at night, or on the wayside, the head was cut off, and the avenger, 
plucking out his ko-katana, thrust it in the ear of the victim, and let 
it lie on the public highway, or sent it to be deposited before the 
gate of the house. The ko-katana, with the name engraved on it, told 
the whole story. 

Whenever the lord of a clan wished his rival or enemy out of the 
way, he gave the order of Herodias to her daughter to his faithful re- 
tainers, and usually the head in due time was brought before him, as 
was John's, on a charger or ceremonial stand. 

The most minutely detailed etiquette presided over the sword, the 
badge of the gentleman. The visitor whose means allowed him to be 
accompanied by a servant always left his long sword in his charge 
when entering a friend's house ; the salutation being repeated bowing 
of the forehead to the floor while on the hands and knees, the breath 
being sucked in at the same time with an impressive sound. The de- 
gree of obeisance was accurately graded according to rank. If alone, 
the visitor laid his sword on the floor of the vestibule. The host's 
servants, if so instructed by their master, then, with a silk napkin in 
hand, removed it inside and placed it, with all honor, on the sword- 
rack. At meetings between those less familiar, the sheathed weapon 
was withdrawn from the girdle and laid on the floor to the right, an 



THE GROWTH AXD CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 223 

indication of friendship, since it could not be drawn easily. Under 
suspicious circumstances, it was laid to the left, so as to be at hand. 
On short visits, the dirk was retained in the girdle ; on festal occasions, 
or prolonged visits, it was withdrawn. To clash the sheath of one's 
sword against that of another was a breach of etiquette that often re- 
sulted in instantaneous and bloody reprisal. The accompanying cut by 
Hokusai represents such a scene. The story is a true one, and well 




The Challenge. 

told by Mitford. Fuwa Banzaemon — he of the robe marked with the 
nuretsubami (swallow in a shower) — and Nagoya Sanzaburo — he of 
the coat figured with the device of lightning — both enemies, and ronin, 
as their straw hats show, meet, and intentionally turn back to back 
and clash scabbards, holding their hands in tragic attitude. In a 
moment more, so the picture tells us, the insulted scabbards will be 
empty, and the blades crossed in deadly combat. In the story, which 
has been versified and dramatized, and which on the boards will hold 
an audience breathless, Nagoya finally kills Fuwa The writing at the 
side of the sketch gives the clue to the incident : saya-ate (scabbard- 
collision), equivalent to our " flinging down the gauntlet." 

To turn the sheath in the belt as if about to draw was tantamount 
to a challenge. To lay one's weapon on the floor of a room, and kick 
the guard toward a person, was an insult that generally resulted in a 
combat to the death. Even to touch another's weapon in any way 
was a grave offense. No weapon was ever exhibited naked for any 



224 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

purpose, unless the wearer first profusely begged pardon of those 
present. A wish to see a sword was seldom made, unless the blade 
was a rare one. The owner then held the back of the sword to the 
spectator, with the edge toward himself, and the hilt, wrapped in the 
little silk napkin which gentlemen always carry in their pocket-books, 
or a piece of white paper, to the left. The blade was then withdrawn 
from the scabbard, and admired inch by inch, but never entirely with- 
drawn unless the owner pressed his guest to do so, when, with much 
apology, the sword was entirely withdrawn and held away from those 
present. Many gentlemen took a pride in making collections of 
swords, and the men of every samurai family wore weapons that were 
heir-looms, often centuries old. Women wore short swords when 
traveling, and the palace ladies in time of fires armed themselves. 

In no country has the sword been made an object of such honor 
as in Japan. It is at once a divine symbol, a knightly weapon, and 
a certificate of noble birth. " The girded sword is the soul of the 
samurai." It is " the precious possession of lord and vassal- from 
times older than the divine period." Japan is "the land of many 
blades." The gods wore and wielded two-edged swords. From the 
tail of the dragon was born the sword which the Sun-goddess gave to 
the first emperor of Japan. By the sword of the clustering clouds of 
heaven Yamato-Dake subdued the East. By the sword the mortal 
heroes of Japan won their fame. 

" There's naught 'twixt heaven and earth that man need fear, who 
carries at his belt this single blade." " One's fate is in the hands of 
Heaven, but a skillful fighter does not meet with death." " In the 
last days, one's sword becomes the wealth of one's posterity." These 
are the mottoes graven on Japanese swords. 

Names of famous swords belonging to the Taira, Minamoto, and 
other families are, "Little Crow," " Beard - cutter," "Knee -divider." 
The two latter, when tried on sentenced criminals, after severing the 
heads from the body, cut the beard, and divided the knee respective- 
ly. The forging of these swords occupied the smith sixty days. No 
artisans were held in greater honor than the sword-makers, and some 
of them even rose to honorary rank. The forging of a blade was 
often a religious ceremony. The names of Munechicka, Masamune, 
Yoshimitsu, and Muramasa, a few out of many noted smiths, are 
familiar words in the mouths of even Japanese children. The names, 
or marks and dates, of famous makers were always attached to their 
blades, and from the ninth to the fifteenth century were sure to be 



THE GROWTH AND CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 225 

genuine. In later times, the practice of counterfeiting the marks of 
well-known makers came into vogue. Certain swords considered of 
good omen in one family were deemed unlucky in others. 

I had frequent opportunities of examining several of the master- 
pieces of renowned sword -makers while in Japan, the property of 
kuges, daimios, and old samurai families, the museum at Kamakura 
being especially rich in famous old blades. The ordinary length of a 
sword was a fraction over two feet for the long and one foot for the 
short sword. All lengths were, however, made use of, and some of 
the old warriors on horseback wore swords over six feet long. 

The Japanese sword -blade averages about an inch in width, about 
seven-eighths of which is a backing of iron, to which a face of steel is 
forged along its entire length. The back, about one-fourth of an inch 
thick, bevels out very slightly to near the centre of the blade, which 
then narrows to a razor edge. The steel and the forging line are 
easily distinguished by a cloudiness on the mirror-like polish of the 
metal. An inch and a quarter from the point, the width of the blade 
having been decreased one -fourth, the edge is ground off to a semi- 
parabola, meeting the back, which is prolonged, untouched ; the curve 
of the whole blade, from a straight line, being less than a quarter of 
an inch. The guard is often a piece of elaborate workmanship in 
metal, representing a landscape, water -scene, or various emblems. 
The hilt is formed by covering the prolonged iron handle by shark- 
skin and wrapping this with twisted silk. The ferule, washers, and 
cleets are usually inlaid, embossed, or chased in gold, silver, or alloy. 
The rivets in the centre of the handle are concealed by designs, often 
of solid gold, such as the lion, dragon, cock, etc. 

In full dress, the color of the scabbard was black, with a tinge of 
green or red in it, and the bindings of the hilt of blue silk. The 
taste of the wearer was often displayed in the color, size, or method 
of wearing his sword, gay or proud fellows affecting startling colors 
or extravagant length. Riven through ornamental ferules at the side 
of the scabbards were long, flat cords of woven silk of various tints, 
which were used to tie up the flowing sleeves, preparatory to fighting. 
Every part of a sword was richly inlaid, or expensively finished. 
Daimios often spent extravagant sums on a single blade, and small 
fortunes on a collection. A samurai, however poor, would have a 
blade of sure temper and rich mountings, deeming it honorable to suf- 
fer for food, that he might have a worthy emblem of his social rank 
as a samurai. A description of the various styles of blade and scab- 



226 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



bard, lacquer, ornaments, and the rich vocabulary of terms minutely 
detailing each piece entering into the construction of a Japanese 
sword, the etiquette to be observed, the names, mottoes, and legends 
relating to them, would fill a large volume closely printed. A consid- 
erable portion of native literature is devoted to this one subject. 




Archer on Castle Rampart, (From a native drawing.) 

The bow and arrows were the chief weapons for siege ana long- 
range operations. A Japanese bow has a peculiar shape, as seen in 
the engraving. It was made of well-selected oak (kashi), incased on 
both sides with a semi-cylinder of split bamboo toughened by fire. 
The three pieces composing the bow were then bound firmly into one 
piece by thin withes of rattan, making an excellent combination of 
lightness, strength, and elasticity. The string was of hemp. Arrows 
were of various kinds and lengths, according to the arms of the arch- 



THE GROWTH AND CUSTOMS OF FEUDALISM. 



227 



er. The average length of the war-arrow was three feet. The " tur- 
nip-head," " frog - crotch," " willow - leaf ," " armor - piercer," "bowel- 
raker," were a few of the various names for arrows. The " turnip- 
top," so named from its shape, made a singing noise as it flew. The 
" frog-crotch," shaped like a pitchfork, or the hind legs of a leaping- 
frog, with edged blades, was used to cut down flags or sever helmet 
lacings. The " willow-leaf " was a two-edged, unbarbed head, shaped 
like the leaf of a willow. The " bowel - raker " was of a frightful 
shape, well worthy of the name ; and the victim whose diaphragm it 
penetrated was not likely to stir about afterward. The " armor- 
piercer" was a plain bolt-head, with 
nearly blunt point, well calculated to 
punch through a breastplate. Barbs 
of steel were of various shape ; some- 
times very heavy, and often handsome- 
ly open -worked. The shaft was of 
cane bamboo, with string-piece of bone 
or horn, whipped on with silk. Quiv- 
ers were of leather, water-proof paper, 
or thin lacquered wood, and often 
splendidly adorned. Gold-inlaid weap- 
ons were common among the rich sol- 
diers, and the outfit of an officer often 
cost many hundreds of dollars. Not 
a few of these old tools of war have 
lost their significance, and have be- 
come household adornments, objects 
of art, or symbols of peace. Such 
especially are the emblems of the car- 
penter's guilds, which consist of the 
half - feathered "turnip -head" arrow, 
wreathed with leaves of the same suc- 
culent, and the " frog-crotch," inserted 
in the mouth of a dragon, crossed 
upon the ancient mallet of the craft. 
These adorn temples or houses, or are 
carried in the local parades and festi- 
vals. 

As Buddhism had become the pro- Sy Q mbols of ^ L Cn ? e " ter ',; Q "" d: the 

^ Singing or "Turnip-top," and Cutting 

f essed religion of the entire nation, or Knife-prong, Arrows, and Mallet. 




228 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the vast majority of the military men were Buddhists. Each had 
his patron or deity. The soldier went into battle with an image of 
Buddha sewed in his helmet, and after victory ascribed glory to his 
divine deliverer. Many temples in Japan are the standing monuments 
of triumph in battle, or vows performed. Many of the noted captains, 
notably Kato, inscribed their banners with texts from the classics or 
the prayers, " Namu Amida Butsu," or " Namu mio ho," etc., ac- 
cording to their sect. Amulets and charms were worn almost without 
exception, and many a tale is told of arrows turned aside, or swords 
broken, that struck on a sacred image, picture, or text. Before enter- 
ing a battle, or performing a special feat of skill or valor, the hero 
uttered the warrior's prayer, " Namu Hachiman Dai-bosatsu " (Glory to 
Hachiman, the incarnation of Great Buddha). Though brave heroes 
must, like ordinary men, pass through purgatory, yet death on the 
battle-field was reckoned highly meritorious, and the happiness of the 
warrior's soul in the next world was secured by the prayers of his 
wife and children. 

[Note on the Development of Feudalism. — A thoroughly competent critic in The 
Japan Mail of November 25th, 1876, in a review of this work, criticising the au- 
thor's treatment of Japanese feudalism, says: "In Japan, as in other Asiatic 
countries, the two main functions of government were the collection of the land 
revenue and the repression of rapine. In the palmy days of the mikado's power, 
both these functions were united in the hands of the prefects, who were appoint- 
ed from Kioto, with a tenure of office restricted to four years. What Toritomo 
ostensibly did was to procure a division of these two departments of govern- 
mental activity, leaving one (the collection of revenue) to the mikado's function- 
aries, and obtaining the control of the other (the repression of crime) for himself. 
This control he acquired not .... in virtue of his military office of Sei-i-Tai Sho- 
gun,but by cloaking his military power under the guise of his civil title, So Tsui- 
ho Shi, which might well be rendered Chief Commissioner of Police, or High 
Constable of the Realm. The extension of the system of appointing military 
magistrates, which was found to work so well in the Kuanto, to the central and 
western provinces, was effected some years before he received his rank of Bar- 
barian-quelling Generalissimo. The second step in the direction of feudalism 
.... was the system, initiated by the Ashikaga shoguns, of making the military 
magistracies hereditary in the families of their own nominees. The third was 
when Hideyoshi parceled out the fiefs without reference to the sovereign, by 
titles granted in his own names. This was the precedent that Iyeyasu follow- 
ed when he based the power of his dynasty on the tie of personal fealty of the 
Fudai daimios and hatamotos to himself and his successors as lords-paramount 
of their lands."] 



NOBUNAGA, THE PERSECUTOR OF THE BUDDHISTS. 229 



XXIII. 

NOBUNAGA, THE PERSECUTOR OF THE BUDDHISTS. 

In the province of Echizen, a few miles from Fukui, on the sea- 
coast, stands the mountain of Ochi, adorned with many a shrine and 
sacred portal, and at its foot lies the village of Ota. Tradition states 
that nearly a thousand years ago the pious bonze, Tai Cho, ascended 
and explored this mountain, which is now held sacred and resorted to 
by many a pilgrim. Here, in uninterrupted harmony, dwelt for cent- 
uries priests of both the native Shinto and Buddhist cultus, until 
1868, when, in the purification, all Shinto shrines were purged of Bud- 
dhist symbolism and influences, as of a thing unclean. The priests 
were wont to make occasional journeys to Kioto, the ecclesiastical cen- 
tre of the country. Centuries before the troublous times of Ashikaga, 
and during the period of the Taira and Minamoto, one of the Shinto 
priests, while on his way through Omi, stopped at Tsuda, and lodged 
with the nanushi, or head-man of the village, and asked him for one 
of his sons for the priesthood. The host gave him his step-son, whom 
the priest named Ota Chikazane. 

That boy was of Taira blood, the great-grandson of Kiyomori. His 
father, Sukeinori, had been killed by the Minamoto, but his mother 
had fled to Omi, and the head-man of the village of Tsuda had mar- 
ried her. 

The mother, though grieving for the loss of her son, doubtless, as a 
pious woman, rejoiced to see him in such excellent hands. The lad 
was returned to Ota, and lived in the village. He grew up, married 
as became a kannushi (custodian of a Shinto shrine), and founded a 
family of Shinto priests. He was the common ancestor of the famous 
hero of Echizen, Shibata Katsuiye, and of the renowned Nobunaga, 
who deposed the Ashikaga, persecuted the Buddhists, encouraged the 
Jesuits, and restored, to a great extent, the supremacy of the mikado. 
In the "History of the Church," a portrait is given of Nobunaga, 
which is thus translated by Dr. Walter Dixon. He is described as " a 
prince of large stature, but of a weak and delicate complexion, with a 



230 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

heart and soul that supplied all other wants ; ambitious above all man- 
kind ; brave, generous, and bold, and not without many excellent mor- 
al virtues ; inclined to justice, and an enemy to treason. With a quick 
and penetrating wit, he seemed cut out for business. Excelling in mili- 
tary discipline, he was esteemed the fittest to command an army, man- 
age a siege, fortify a town, or mark out a camp, of any general in Ja- 
pan, never using any heads but his own. If he asked advice, it was 
more to know their hearts than to profit by their advice. He sought 
to see into others, and to conceal his own counsel, being very secret in 
his designs. He laughed at the worship of the gods, convinced that 
the bonzes were impostors abusing the simplicity of the people, and 
screening their own debauches under the name of religion." 

Nobunaga had four generals, whom the people in those days were 
wont to nickname, respectively, "Cotton," "Rice," "Attack," "Re- 
treat." The one was so fertile of resources that he was like cotton, 
that can be put to a multitude of uses ; the second was as absolutely 
necessary as rice, which, if the people be without for a day, they die ; 
the third excelled in onset ; the fourth, in skillful retreat. They were 
Hideyoshi, Goroza, Shibata, and Ikeda. A fifth afterward joined him, 
whose name was Tokugawa Iyeyasii. These three names, Nobunaga, 
Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasii, are the most renowned in Japan. 

Nobunaga first appears on the scene in 1542. His father, after the 
fashion of the times, was a warrior, who, in the general scramble for 
land, was bent on securing a fair slice of territory. He died in 1549, 
leaving to his son his arms, his land, and his feuds. Nobunaga gained 
Suruga, Mino, Omi and Mikawa, Ise and Echizen, in succession. Hav- 
ing possession of Kioto, he built the fine castle of Nijo, and took the 
side of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who by his influence was made shogun in 
1558. Six years later, the two quarreled. Nobunaga arrested and 
deposed him, and the power of this family, which had lasted two hun- 
dred and thirty-eight years, came to an end. From this time there 
was no Sei-i Tai Shdgun, until Iyeyasii obtained the office, in 1604. 
By the aid of his commanders, Hideyoshi and Iyeyasii, he brought 
large portions of the empire under his authority, and nominally that 
of the mikado, in whose name he governed. He became Naidaijin 
(inner great minister), but never shogun. The reason of this, doubt- 
less, was that the office of shogun was by custom monopolized by the 
Minamoto family and descendants, whereas Nobunaga was of Taira de- 
scent. Like Yoritomo, he was a skillful and determined soldier, but 
was never able to subdue the great clans. Unlike him, he lacked ad- 



NOBUNAGA, THE PERSECUTOR OF THE BUDDHISTS. 231 

ministrative power, and was never able to follow up in peace the vic- 
tories gained in war. 

He met his death in Kioto, when in the fullness of his power and 
fame, in the following manner. Among his captains was Akechi, a 
brave, proud man, who had taken mortal offense at his leader. One 
day, while in his palace, being in an unusually merry and familiar 
mood, Nobunaga put Akechi's head under his arm, saying he would 
make a drum of it, struck it with his fan, like a drumstick, playing a 
tune. Akechi did not relish the joke, and silently waited for revenge. 
His passion was doubtless nursed and kept warm by a previous desire 
to seize the place and power and riches of his chief. 

In those days treachery was a common and trivial occurrence, and 
the adherent of to-day was the deserter of to-morrow. The opportu- 
nity did not delay. Nobunaga had sent so large a re-enforcement into 
the west, to Hideyoshi, who was fighting with Mori, that the garrison 
at the capital was reduced to a minimum. Akechi was ordered to the 
Chiugoku, and pretended to march thither. Outside the city he dis- 
closed his plan of killing Nobunaga, whom he denounced to his offi- 
cers, and promised them rich booty. They returned to Kioto, and sur- 
rounded the temple of Honnoji, where their victim was then residing. 
Hearing of the unexpected presence of so many soldiers in armor 
around his dwelling, he drew aside the window of his room to ascer- 
tain the cause. He was struck by an arrow, and instantly divined the 
situation, and that escape was impossible. He then set the temple on 
fire, and committed suicide. In a few minutes the body of the great 
hero was a charred crisp. 

An uninscribed tomb of polygonal masonry, built in his honor, 
stands in the ten-shiu, or keep, of his most famous castle, Azuchi yama, 
on a high hill looking out upon the white walls of the fortress of Hi- 
kone, the blue lake of Biwa, and the towering grandeur of Ibuki yama. 
He died at the age of forty-nine. 

The position of Ota Nobunaga in Japanese history would be illy 
understood were the reader to regard him merely as a leader in clan 
fights, who by genius and vigor rose above the crowd of petty milita- 
ry adventurers, or even as one who wished to tranquilize and unify all 
Japan for the mikado. We must inquire why it is that no man has 
won more execration and anathemas from the Buddhists in Japan 
than he. They look upon him as an incarnate demon sent to destroy 
their faith. 

The period of the Ashikaga was that in which the Buddhist priests 



232 THE MIKAD ' S EMPIRE. 

reached the acme of power. Their monasteries were often enormous 
stone-walled and moated fortresses. The bonzes kept armor and ar- 
senals full of weapons to don and use themselves, or to equip the 
armies in their pay when it suited their pleasure to cope with or as- 
sist either of the changing sides, or to take spoil of both. Many 
bloody battles took place between rival sects, in which temples were 
burned down, villages fired, and hundreds on both sides killed. Part 
of what is now the immense castle of Ozaka belonged to the Ikko or 
Shin sect. 

At Hiyeizan, on Lake Biwa, was the most extensive monastery in 
Japan. The grounds, adorned and beautified with the rarest art of 
the native landscape gardener, inclosed thirteen valleys and over five 
hundred temples, shrines, and priestly dwellings. Here thousands of 
monks were congregated. They chanted before gorgeous altars, cele- 
brated their splendid ritual, reveled in luxury and licentiousness, drank 
their sake, eat the forbidden viands, and dallied with their concubines, 
or hatched plots to light or fan the flames of feudal war, so as to make 
the quarrels of the clans and chiefs redound to their aggrandizement. 
They trusted profoundly to their professedly sacred character to shield 
them from all danger. 

For these bonzes Nobunaga had no respect. His early life among 
the priests had doubtless destroyed whatever reverence he might have 
had for their sanctity. His education as a Shintoist made him hate 
the Buddhists as enemies. The bonzes continually foiled his schemes, 
and he saw that, even if war between the clans ceased, the existence 
of these monasteries would jeopard the national peace. He resolved 
to destroy them. 

In the Ninth month, 1571, says the Nihon Guai Shi, he encamped 
at Seta, and ordered his generals to set Hiyeizan on fire. The gener- 
als, surprised at the order, lost countenance, and exhorted him not to 
do it, saying, " Since Kuammu TennS [782-806] built this monastery, 
nearly a thousand years ago, it has been esteemed the most vigilant 
against the devil. No one has yet dared to injure these temples ; but 
now, do you intend to do so ? How can it be possible ?" To this 
Nobunaga answered : "I have put down the thieves against the em- 
peror [kokuzoku, robbers of country] ; why do you hinder me thus ? 
I intend to tranquilize the whole land, and revive the declining power 
of the imperial Government. I continually make light of my life for 
the mikado's sake, and hence I have no rest for a single day. Last 
year I subdued Settsu, and both castles were about to be surrendered, 



NOBUNAGA, THE PERSECUTOR OF THE BUDDHISTS. 233 

when Yoshikage [Daimio of Eckizen] and Nagamasa [Dainiio of Omi] 
attacked my rear, and I was obliged to raise the siege and retrace my 
steps. My allowing the priests to remain on this mountain was in or- 
der that I might destroy them. I once dispatched a messenger to the 
priests, and set before them happiness and misery. The bonzes nev- 
er obeyed my word, but stoutly assisted the wicked fellows, and so 
resisted the imperial army [oshi, or huangun\. Does this act not 
make them [kokuzoku] country-thieves ? If I do \iot now take them 
away, this great trouble will continue forever. Moreover, I have heard 
that the priests violate their own rules ; they eat fish and stinking 
vegetables [the five odorous plants prohibited by Buddhism — common 
and wild leek, garlic, onions, scallions], keep concubines, and roll up 
the sacred books [never untie them to read them or pray]. How can 
they be vigilant against evil, or preserve justice ? Then surround their 
dwellings, burn them down, suffer no one to live." 

The generals, incited by the speech of their commander, agreed. 
On the next day an awful scene of butchery and conflagration ensued. 
The soldiers set fire to the great shrines and temples ; and while the 
stately edifices were in flames, plied sword, lance, and arrow. None 
were permitted to escape. Without discrimination of age or sex, the 
toothless dotard, abbot, and bonze, maid -servant and concubine and 
children, were speared or cut down without mercy. This was the first 
great blow at Buddhism. 

In 1579, the two great sects of Nichiren and Jodo held a great dis- 
cussion upon religious subjects, which reached such a point of acri- 
mony that the attention of the Government was called to it, and it 
was continued and finished before Nobunaga, at his castle at Azuchi 
yama, on the lands of which he had already allowed the Jesuits to 
build churches. A book called Azuchi Bon, still extant, contains the 
substance of the argument on both sides. One result of the wordy 
contest was the suppression of a sub -sect of Jodo, whose doctrines 
were thought to be dangerous to the State. 

The immense fortified temple and monastery called Honguanji, in 
Ozaka, was the property of the Mod to, or Shin sect of Buddhists, and 
the retreat and hiding-place of Nobunaga's enemies. The bonzes 
themselves were his most bitter haters, because he had so encouraged 
the Jesuits. They had taken the side of his enemies for over twelve 
years. At last, when some of his best captains had been killed by 
" grass-rebels," or ambuscaders, who fled into the monastery, he laid 
siege to it in earnest, with the intention of serving the inmates as he 



234 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



did those of Hiyeizan. Within the enceinte, crowded in five connect- 
ing fortresses, were thousands of women and children, besides the 
warriors and priests. Another frightful massacre seemed imminent. 
The place was so surrounded that every attempt of the garrison to 
escape was cut ofr". On an intensely dark night, under cover of a 
storm then raging, several thousands of the people, of all sexes and ages, 
attempted to escape from one of the forts. They were overtaken and 
slaughtered. The main garrison shortly afterward learned the fate of 
their late comrades by seeing a junk, dispatched by the victors, laden 
with human ears and noses, approach the castle with its hideous cargo. 




View of the Castle of Ozaka (taken in 1861), from the Rice-fields. 

Another outpost of the castle was surrendered. In the second month 
of the siege, a sortie in force was repelled by showers of arrows and 
matchlock balls ; but, in the fighting, Nobunaga's best officers were 
slain. The besieging army finally occupied three of the five in the 
net-work of fortresses. Thousands (" twenty thousand ") of the gar- 
rison had been killed by arrow and ball, or had perished in the flames, 
and the horrible stench of burning flesh filled the air -for miles. The 
fate of the main body within the walls was soon to be decided. 

The mikado, grieving over the shedding of so much blood, sent 
three court nobles and a priest of another sect to persuade the garri- 



NOBUNAGA, THE PERSECUTOR OF THE BUDDHISTS. 235 

son to yield. A conference of the abbot and elders was called, and a 
surrender decided upon. The castle was turned over to Nobunaga, 
and from that day until the present has remained in the hands of the 
Government. Pardon was granted to the survivors, and the bonzes 
scattered to the other large monasteries of their sect. To this day, 
the great sects in Japan have never fully recovered from the blows 
dealt by Nobunaga. Subsequently, rulers were obliged to lay violent 
hands upon the strongholds of ecclesiastical power that threatened so 
frequently to disturb the peace of the country ; but they were able to 
do it with comparative ease, because Nobunaga had begun the wort 
with such unscrupulous vigor and thoroughness. 




Nobunaga's Victims : Types of Buddhist Priesthood and Monastic Orders. 



236 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XXIV. 

HIDEYOSHF S ENTERPRISES.— THE INVASION OF COREA. 

There are hundreds of mura, or villages, in Japan, called Nakamu- 
ra (naka, middle ; mura, village), for the same reason that there are 
many Middletowns in English-speaking countries, but none of them 
claim to be the birthplace of Hideyoshi except that in the district of 
Aichi, in Owari. There, in 1536, lived a peasant called Yasuke, whose 
wife bore a wizen-faced, pithecoid baby, who grew up to be a cunning 
and reckless boy. Instead of going out to the hill-sides, grass-hook 
in hand and basket on back, to cut green fodder for horses, or stand- 
ing knee-deep in the mud- 
pulp of the rice-fields weed- 
ing the young plants, re- 
turning at night, with hoe 
on shoulder, he lived on 
the streets, and sharpened 
his wits, afraid of no one. 
While a mere boy, he be- 
came a betto, or groom, to 
Nobunaga, who noticed the 
boy's monkey face and rest- 
less eyes, and encouraged 
him to become a soldier, 
which he did. 

The number and variety 
of names possessed by him 
in his life -time illustrate 
well the confusing custom 
in vogue among the Japa- 
nese of frequently changing 
their names. The reader 
of the native literature or 
of foreign works of Japan 




A Familiar Country Scene: Boys going up a Mount- 
ain to cut Grass ; Peasant Woman, with Hoe on her 
Shoulder. 



HIDEYOSHPS ENTERPRISES.— INVASION OF COREA. 237 

is perplexed, among the multitude of names and titles, to distinguish 
the personage to whom they belong. When there are many actors in 
the scene, and each is known by a half-dozen aliases, confusion becomes 
confounded, and the patience is sorely taxed. 

In this work I designate one person by one name, although appar- 
ent anachronisms must thereby be committed, and the eyes of the 
scholar be often annoyed. It has, until recently, in Japan been the 
custom for every samurai to be named differently in babyhood, boy- 
hood, manhood, or promotion, change of life or residence, in com- 
memoration of certain events, or on account of a vow, or from mere 
whim. Thus, at his birth, Hideyoshi's mother having, as it is said, 
dreamed that she had conceived by the sun, called him Hiyoshi maro 
(good sun). Others dubbed him Ko chiku (small boy), and afterward 
Saru matsu (monkey-pine). As a soldier, he enlisted as Kinoshita To- 
kichiro, the first being an assumed name. As he grew famous, he was 
nicknamed Momen Tokichi ("Cotton" Tokichi). When a general, 
from a mere whim, he made himself a name by uniting two syllables, 
ha and shiba, making Hashiba, from the names of two of his generals, 
Ni-wa or ha, and Shibata, which the Jesuits wrote, as the Portuguese 
orthography required, Faxiba. 

When, in 1586, he attained the rank of Kuambaku (Cambaku dono 
of the Jesuits), or premier, his enemies, who were jealous of the par- 
venu, spoke of him as Saru Kuan ja, or crowned monkey. How he 
obtained this high office, even with all the limitless store of cunning 
impudence and egotism, is not known, for no one except nobles of 
Fujiwara blood had ever filled that office, it being reserved exclusively 
for members of that family. He obtained from the emperor the pat- 
ent of a family name, and he and his successors are known in history 
as the Toyotomi family, he being Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1591 he 
resigned his high office, and was succeeded by his son. Hence he 
took the title of taiko, and the people referred to him as Taiko sama, 
just as they put the term sama (Mr., or Sir, Honorable, etc.) after the 
titles of emperor, shogun, other titled officials, or after the name of 
any person. Japanese address foreigners as " Smith sama," or " Smith 
san," or an infant as " baby san," instead of " Mr. Smith," "the baby," 
etc. The term sama fulfills, in a measure, the function of the definite 
article or demonstrative pronoun, or serves as a social handle. Hence, 
in foreign works, Hideyoshi, the taiko ; or that one of the many taiko, 
called Hideyoshi, is referred to as Taiko sama. 

Hideyoshi was a man of war from his youth up. His abilities and 

16 



238 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

soldierly qualities made him a favorite commander. His banner con^ 
sisted of a cluster of gourds. At first it was a single gourd. After 
each battle another was added, until at last it became an imposing 
sheaf. The standard-bearer carried aloft at the head of the columns a 
golden representation of the original model, and wherever Hideyoshi' s 
banner moved there was the centre of victory. 

At the death of Nobunaga, the situation was as follows : His third 
son, Nobutaka, was ruler over Shikoku ; Shimadzii (Satsuma) was 
fighting with Otomo, and seizing his land in Kiushiu. Hideyoshi and 
Nobuwo, second son of Nobunaga, with the imperial army, were fight- 
ing with Mori, Prince of Choshiu, who held ten provinces in the West 
Iyeyasu, ruler of eight provinces in the Kuanto, was in the field against 
Ho jo of Odawara. Shibata held Echizen. Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu 
were the rising men, but the former attained first to highest power. 
Immediately on hearing of Nobunaga's death, Hideyoshi made terms 
with Mori, hastened to Kioto, and defeated and slew Akechi. The 
fate of this assassin has given rise to the native proverb, " Akechi ruled 
three days." His name and power were now paramount. The prizes 
of rank were before him, for the mikado and court could not oppose 
his wishes. Of his master's sons, one had died, leaving an infant ; the 
second son was assisted by Iyeyasu, with whom Hideyoshi had made 
a compromise ; the third, Nobutaka, was weak, and endeavored, sec- 
onded by his chief captain, Shibata, who had married the sister of No- 
bunaga, to maintain his rights. Hideyoshi marched into Mino, de- 
feated him, pursued Shibata into Echizen, and, after several skirmishes, 
burned his castle. The account of this, as given by the Jesuits, is as 
follows: "Among the confederates of Nobutaka was one Shibata dono, 
brother-in-law to Nobunaga. He was besieged in the fortress of Shi- 
bata [in what is now Fukui] ; and seeing no way of escape, he, having 
dined with his friend's wife and children and retainers, set fire to his 
castle, first killing his wife, his children, and the female servants ; and 
his friends, following his example, afterward committed suicide, and 
lay there wallowing in their blood, till the fire kindled, and burned 
them to ashes." 

My residence in Fukui, during the year 1871, was immediately on 
the site of part of Shibata's old castle. His tomb stands under some 
venerable old pine-trees some distance from the city. When I visited 
it, the old priest who keeps the temple, since erected, brought out sev- 
eral old boxes carefully labeled, and reverently opened them. One 
contained the rusty breastplate and other portions of Shibata's armor, 



HIDEYOSHFS ENTERPRISES.— INVASION OF CORE A. 239 




picked up after the lire. Other 
relics saved from the ashes were 
shown me. The story, as it fell 
from the old bonze's lips, and 
was translated by my interpret- 
er, is substantially that given by 
the native historians. 

Having fled, after many de- 
feats, he reached the place now Cam P of Hid «y oshi on Atago Mountain, be- 

n i t-i i • ttm, -. . . •. fore Fukui. 

called h ukui. Hideyoshi, in hot 

pursuit, fixed his camp on Atagoyama, a mountain which overlooks 
the city, and began the siege, which he daily pressed, closer and 
closer. Being hopelessly surrounded, and succor hopeless, Shibata, 
like a true Epicurean, gave a grand feast to all his captains and re- 
tainers, in anticipation of the morrow of death. All within the 
doomed walls eat, drank, sung, danced and made merry, for the mor- 



240 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

row was not to see them in this world. At the height of the ban- 
quet, Shibata, quaffing the parting cup before death, addressed his 
wife thus : " You may go out of the castle and save your life. 
You are a woman ; but we are men, and will die. You are at liberty 
to marry another." His wife, the sister of Nobunaga, with a spirit 
equal to his, was moved to tears, thanked her lord for his love and 
kindness, and declared she would never marry another, but would die 
with her husband. She then composed a farewell stanza of poetry, 
and, with a soul no less brave because it was a woman's, received her 
husband's dirk into her heart. 

Like true Stoics, Shibata and his companions put all the women 
and children to the death they welcomed, and for which they gave 
thanks ; and then, with due decorum and ceremony, opening their own 
bodies by hara-kiri, they died as brave Japanese ever love to die, by 
their own hands, and not by those of an enemy. 

Hideyoshi, on his return to Kioto, began a career of usefulness, devel- 
oping the resources of the empire and strengthening the power of the 
emperor. Knowing it was necessary to keep his captains and soldiers 
busy in time of inaction, and having a genius for the works of peace as 
well as war, he built splendid palaces at Kioto, improved the city, and 
paved the bed of the river Kamo with broad, flat stones. He laid the 
foundations of the future commercial greatness of Ozaka by enlarging 
the site of the monastery destroyed by Nobunaga, building the immense 
fortress, only part of which still remains, the pride of the city, enlarged 
and deepened the river, and dug many of the hundreds of canals which 
give this city whatever right it may have to be called the Venice of 
Japan. It had, when I saw it in 1871, over eleven hundred bridges, 
one of them of iron. He fortified Fushimi, the strategic key of Kioto, 
with a triple-moated castle, erected colossal towers and pagodas in many 
places. He sequestrated the flourishing commercial port of Nagasaki 
from the Daimio of Omura, and made it the property of the crown. 
Neither Deshima nor Pappenberg was then historic ; but the lovely 
scenery was as much the subject of admiration as it is now. His policy 
was to forgive those who had fought against him, and not to put them 
to death, as Nobunaga had done, who, in the course of his life, had 
killed his brother, father-in-law, and many of his enemies. He reform- 
ed the revenues. His rule was highly popular, for, in his execution of 
justice, he cared little for rank, name, or family line, or services done 
to himself. He was successful in inducing Iyeyasu, after the latter 
had secured the taiko's mother as hostage, to come to Kioto and pay 



HIDEYOSHF S ENTERPRISES. -INVASION OF CORE A. 



241 



homage to the emperor ; and the two rivals becoming friends, Iyeyasu 
married the taiko's sister. Mori, lord of the Western provinces, also 
came to the capital, and acknowledged him as his superior. 

Among his other works, Hideyoshi followed out the policy of No- 
bunaga, destroyed the great monastery at Kumano, the bonzes of which 
claimed the province of Kii. He was never made shogun, not being 
of Minamoto blood ; but having become Kuambaku, and being sur- 
rounded by nobles of high birth and the lofty etiquette of the court, 
he felt the need of a pedigree. No one at court knew who his grand- 
father was, if, indeed, he was aware himself. He made out that his 
mother was the daughter of a kuge, who, in the disturbed times of 
Ashikaga, had fled from Kioto, and, while in poverty and great distress, 
had married his father, but had conceived him before her marriage. 

In his youth he had wedded a peasant girl ; but as he rose step by 
step to eminence, he kept on marrying until he had a number equal 
to that of the polygamous English king, Henry VIII. ; but, unlike that 
monarch, he enjoyed them all at once, and caused none of them to 
lose her head. The last two of his spouses were, respectively, a daugh- 
ter of the house of Maeda, of the rich province of Kaga, and the 
Princess Azai, from Omi, daughter of the wife of Shibata Katsuiye, 
whom the Jesuits, under the name 
of Kita Mandocoro, say was the 
first wife of the taiko, " sweetest 
and best beloved." He had no son 
until in old age. 

The immoderate ambition of 
Hideyoshi's life was to conquer 
Corea, and even China. It had 
been his dream when a boy, and 
his plan when a man. When un- 
der Nobunaga, he had begged of 
him the revenue of Kiushiu for 
one year and weapons, while he 
himself would provide the ships 
and provisions, offering to subdue 
Corea, and with an army of Co- 
reans to conquer China, and thus i mage of Japanese Deified Hero, seen in 
make the three countries one. His Shinto Shrines, 

master laughed, but he kept thinking of it. When in the Kuanto, 
he visited Kamakura, and saw an image of Yoritomo, such as one 




242 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

may still see in the temple of Tsurugaoka. Rubbing and patting 
its back, the parvenu thus addressed the illustrious effigy : " You 
are my friend. You took all the power under Heaven (in Japan). 
You and I, only, have been able to do this ; but you were of a famous 
family, and not like me, sprung from peasants. I intend, at last, to 
conquer all the earth, and even China. What think you of that?" 
Hideyoshi used to say, " The earth is the earth's earth " — a doctrine 
which led him to respect very slightly the claim of any one to land 
which he coveted, and had won by his own efforts. 

Under the declining power of Ashikaga, all tribute from Corea had 
ceased, and the pirates who ranged the coasts scarcely allowed a pre- 
carious trade to exist. The So family, who held Tsushima, however, 
had a small settlement in Corea. Some Chinese, emigrating to Japan, 
told Hideyoshi of the military disorganization and anarchy in China, 
which increased his desire to " peep into China." He then sent two- 
embassies in succession to Corea to demand tribute. The second was 
successful. He also sent word to the Emperor of China by some Liu 
Kiu tribute-bearers that if he (the Emperor of China) would not hea* 
him, he would invade his territory with an army. To the Corean en- 
voy he recounted his exploits, and announced his intentions definitely. 

Several embassies crossed and recrossed the sea between Corea and 
Japan, Hideyoshi meanwhile awaiting his best opportunity, as the 
dispatch of the expedition depended almost entirely on his own will. 
His wife, Azai, had borne him a child, whom he loved dearly, but it 
died, and he mourned for it many months. One day he went out to 
a temple, Kiyomidzii, in Kioto, to beguile the sad hours. Lost in 
thought, in looking over the western sky beyond the mountains, he 
suddenly exclaimed to his attendant, " A great man ought to employ 
his army beyond ten thousand miles, and not give way to sorrow." 
Returning to his house, he assembled his generals, and fired their en- 
thusiasm by recounting their exploits mutually achieved. He then 
promised to march to Peking, and divide the soil of China in fiefs 
among them. They unanimously agreed, and departed to the various 
provinces to prepare troops and material. Hideyoshi himself went to 
Kiushiu. 

On his way, some one suggested that scholars versed in Chinese 
should accompany the expedition. Hideyoshi laughed, and said, " This 
expedition will make the Chinese use our literature." After worship- 
ing at a shrine, he threw up a handful of one hundred " cash " in front 
of the shrine, and said, " If I am to conquer China, let the heads show 



HIDEYOSHP S ENTERPRISES.— INVASION OF COREA. 243 

it." The Japanese copper and iron zeni, or kas, have Chinese charac- 
ters representing the chronological period of coinage on one side, and 
waves representing their circulation as money on the reverse. The 
lettered side is " head," the reverse is " tail." All the coins which the 
taiko flung up came down heads. The soldiers were delighted with 
the omen. Maps of Corea were distributed among the commanders 
of the eight divisions, and the plan of the expedition and their co-op- 
eration explained. 

Kato Kiyomasa, who hated the Christians, and who afterward be- 
came their bitterest persecutor, was commander of the first ; and Koni- 
shi Yukinaga, the Christian leader, and a great favorite of the Jesuits, 
of the second. These divisions were alternately to lead the van. The 
naval and military force that embarked is set down in the Guai Shi 
at five hundred thousand men. A reserve of sixty thousand was kept 
ready in Japan as re-enforcements. Many of the generals, captains, 
and private soldiers were of the Christian faith. Kato despised Ko- 
nishi, and they were not friends. The latter was the son of a druggist, 
and persisted, to the disgust of the high-born Kato, in carrying a ban- 
ner representing a paper medicine-bag, such as can be seen swinging 
in front of a native drug-shop to-day. He probably took his cue from 
the august parvenu, the taiko. 

Hideyoshi expected to lead the army himself ; but being sixty years 
old, and infirm, and his aged mother sorrowing so that she could not 
eat on account of it, he remained behind. He gave Kato a flag, say- 
ing, " This was given me by Ota [Nobunaga] when I marched against 
Mori [Choshiu]." To Konishi he presented a fine horse, saying, " With 
this gallop over the bearded savages [Coreans]." All being ready, 
the fleet set sail amidst the shouts of the army and the thunder of 
cannon on the shore. Hideyoshi had attempted to buy or charter two 
Portuguese ships, but was unsuccessful, and the fleet consisted of large 
junks. They were detained off Iki Island by stormy weather. As 
soon as it was calm, Konishi, well acquainted with the route, sailed 
away with his division, arrived at Fusan, in Southern Corea, first, and 
seized the castle. Without allowing his troops to rest, he urged them 
on to other triumphs, that the glory might be theirs alone, and not be 
shared by the other troops, who would soon arrive. Another large 
castle was stormed, several towns captured, and brilliant victories won. 
Three days later, Kato arrived, and heard, to his chagrin, of his rival's 
advance into the interior. He exclaimed, "The boy has taken my 
route ; I shall not follow in his tracks." He then burned the town, 



244 THE MIKADO'S EMF1RE. 

which Konishi had spared, and advanced into the country by another 
way. 

Corea was divided into eight circuits, and the taiko's plan had been 
for each corps of the army to conquer a circuit. The Corean king ap- 
pointed a commander-in-chief, and endeavored to defend his country, 
but the Japanese armies were everywhere victorious. After many bat- 
tles fought, and fortresses stormed, nearly all the provinces of the eight 
circuits were subdued, and the capital, Kenkitai, was taken. The king 
and his son fled. At one great battle, ten thousand Coreans are said 
to have been killed, and their ears cut off and preserved in salt or sake. 
The forts were garrisoned by Japanese troops. The Coreans asked 
the aid of China, and a Chinese army of assistance was sent forward, 
and after several severe battles the Japanese were compelled to fall 
back. Reserves from Japan were dispatched to Corea, and the Japa- 
nese were on the point of invading China, when, in 1598, the death of 
the taiko was announced, and orders were received from their Govern- 
ment to return home. A truce was concluded, and Corean envoys ac- 
companied Konishi to Japan. 

The conquest of Corea, thus ingloriously terminated, reflects no 
honor on Japan, and perhaps the responsibility of the outrage upon a 
peaceful nation rests wholly upon Hideyoshi. The Coreans were a 
mild and peaceable people, wholly unprepared for war. There was 
scarcely a shadow of provocation for the invasion, which was nothing 
less than a huge filibustering scheme. It was not popular with the 
people or the rulers, and was only carried through by the will of the 
taiko. While Japan was impoverished by the great drain on its re- 
sources, the soldiers abroad ruthlessly desolated the homes and need- 
lessly ravaged the land of the Coreans. While the Japanese were de- 
stroying the liberties of the Coreans, the poor natives at home often 
pawned or sold themselves as slaves to the Spaniards and Portuguese 
slave-traders. The sacrifice of life on either side must have been 
great, and all for the ambition of one man. Nevertheless, a party in 
Japan has long held that Corea was, by the conquests of the third 
and sixteenth centuries, a part of the Japanese empire, and the reader 
will see how in 1872, and again in 1875, the cry of "On to Corea!" 
shook the nation like an earthquake. 

The taiko died on the 15th of September, 1598. Before his death» 
he settled the form of government, and married his son Hideyori, then 
six years old, to the granddaughter of Iyeyasu, and appointed five 
tairo, or ministers, who were to be guardians of the boy, and to ac* 



HIDEYOSIIP S ENTERPRISES.— INVASION OF COREA. 245 

knowledge him as his father's successor. As Iyeyasii was the rising 
man, the taiko hoped thus to gain his influence, so that the power 
might descend in his own family. The last thoughts of the hero 
were of strengthening the citadel at Ozaka. The old hero was buried 
in the grounds of Kodaiji, in Kioto. 

The victorious army, returning from Corea, brought much spoil, 
and fine timber to build a memorial temple to the memory of the 
dead hero. Among other trophies were several thousands of ears, 
which, instead of heads, the Japanese carried back to raise a barrow in 
Kioto. The temple was erected on a hill on the west side of Kioto 
by his wife, who, after the death of her husband, became a nun. This 
splendid edifice was afterward burned, and the site of the taiko's re- 
mains is uncertain. 





M III ill 










■ 


p** 



Mimidzuka (Ear Monument), in Kioto. (From a photograph.) 

In the city still stands the Mimidzuka (ear-tomb), a monument of 
characteristic appearance. It consists of a cube, sphere, and pagoda- 
curve, surmounted by two spheroids, the top-stone rising to a point. 
The mound is seven hundred and twenty feet in circumference, and 
ninety feet in height ; the pedestal at the top being twelve feet square, 
and the monument twelve feet high. As usual on Buddhist tombs or 
ecclesiastical edifices, a Sanskrit letter is carved on each side of the 
four faces of the cube. Beneath this tomb is a barrow, covering the 
dissevered ears of thousands of Coreans ; but the most enduring monu- 
ments of the great taiko were the political institutions, and the works 
of peace reared by his genius and labor. 



246 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

It is not difficult to account for the tone of admiration and pride 
with which a modern Japanese speaks of " the age of Taikd." There 
are many who hold that he was the real unifier of the empire, and 
that Iyeyasu merely followed in his footsteps, perfecting the work 
which Hideyoshi began. Certain it is that in many of the most 
striking forms of national administration, and notably in bestowing 
upon his vassals grants of land, and making the conditions of tenure 
loyalty to himself and family, Iyeyasu was but the copyist of the 
taiko. In his time, the arts and sciences were not only in a very 
flourishing condition, but gave promise of rich development. The 
spirit of military enterprise and internal national improvement was at 
its height. Contact with the foreigners of many nations awoke a 
spirit of inquiry and intellectual activity ; but it was on the seas that 
genius and restless activity found their most congenial field. 

This era is marked by the highest perfection in marine architecture, 
and the extent and variety of commercial enterprises. The ships 
built in this century were twice or thrice the size, and vastly the 
superior in model, of the junks that now hug the Japanese shores, or 
ply between China and Japan. The pictures of them preserved to the 
present day show that they were superior in size to the vessels of 
Columbus, and nearly equal in sailing qualities to the contemporary 
Dutch and Portuguese galleons. They were provided with ordnance, 
and a model of a Japanese breech-loading cannon is still preserved in 
Kioto. Ever a brave and adventurous people, the Japanese then 
roamed the seas with a freedom that one who knows only of the 
modern shore-bound people would scarcely credit. Voyages of trade, 
discovery, or piracy had been made to India, Siam, Burmah, the Phil- 
ippines, Southern China, the Malay Archipelago, and the Kuriles, on 
the north, even in the fifteenth century, but were most numerous in 
the sixteenth. The Japanese gave the name to the island of Koson 
(Luzon), and the descendants of Japanese pirates or traders are still to 
be found in numbers in this archipelago. In the city of Ayuthaya, 
on the Menam, in Siam, a flourishing sea-port, the people call one part 
of the place the " Japanese quarter." The Japanese literature contains 
many references to these adventurous sailors; and when the records 
of the Far East are thoroughly investigated, and this subject fully 
studied, very interesting results will be obtained, showing the wide- 
spread influence of Japan at a time when she was scarcely known by 
the European world to have existence. 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 247 



XXV. 

CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS* 

It seems now nearly certain that when Columbus set sail from 
Spain to discover a new continent, it was not America he was seek- 
ing ; for of that he knew nothing. His quest was the land of Japan. 
Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler, had spent seventeen years (1275- 
1292) at the court of the Tartar emperor, Kublai Khan, and while in 
Peking had heard of a land lying to the eastward called, in the lan- 
guage of the Chinese capital, Jipangii, from which our modern name, 
Japan, has been corrupted. Columbus was an ardent student of Polo's 
book, which had been published in 1298. He sailed westward across 
the Atlantic to find this kingdom of the sun-source. He discovered, 
not Japan, but an archipelago in America, on whose shores he eagerly 
inquired concerning Jipangu. The torch of modern discovery thus 
kindled by him was handed on by Vasco da Gama, and a host of 
brave Portuguese navigators, who drove their keels into the once un- 
known seas of the Orient, and came back to tell of densely populated 
empires enriched with the wealth that makes civilization possible, and 
of which Europe had scarcely heard. Their accounts fired the hearts 
of the zealous who longed to convert the heathen, aroused the cupidity 
of traders who thirsted for gold, and kindled the desire of monarchs to 
found empires in Asia. 

As the Spaniards had founded an empire in America, Portugal was 
then nearing the zenith of her maritime glory. Mendez Pinto, a Por- 
tuguese adventurer, seems to have been the first European who landed 
on Japanese soil. On his return to Europe, he told so many wonder 
ful stories that he was dubbed, by a pun on his Christian name, " the 

* In compiling this chapter, I have made use of Hildreth's "Japan as it Was 
and Is;" L£on Pages' "Histoire de la Religion Chretienne au Japon;" Char- 
levoix's "Histoiredu Christianismeau Japon;" Dixon's "Japan;" "Shimabara: A 
Japanese Account of the Christian Insurrection in 1637;" the Japanese Encyclo- 
paedia, San Sai Dzu Ye ; and the able paper of Herr Von Brandt (Minister of the 
North German Confederation in Japan) read before the German Asiatic Society 
of Japan. 



248 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

mendacious." His narrative was, however, as we now know, substan- 
tially correct. Pinto, while in China, had got on board a Chinese 
junk, commanded by a pirate. They were attacked by another cor- 
sair, their pilot was killed, and the vessel was driven off the coast by 
a storm. They made for the Liu Kiu Islands ; but, unable to find a 
harbor, put to sea, and after twenty-three days beating about, sighted 
the island of Tane ( Tanegashirna, island of the seed), off the south of 
Kiushiu, and landed. The name of the island was significant. The 
arrival of those foreigners was the seed of troubles innumerable. The 
crop was priestcraft of the worst type, political intrigue, religious per- 
secution, the Inquisition, the slave-trade, the propagation of Christian- 
ity by the sword, sedition, rebellion, and civil war. Its harvest was 
garnered in the blood of sixty thousand Japanese. 

The native histories recount the first arrival of Europeans on Tane- 
gashima in 1542, and note that year as the one in which fire-arms 
were first introduced. Pinto and his two companions were armed 
with arquebuses, which delighted this people, ever ready to accept 
whatever will tend to their advantage. They were even more im- 
pressed with the novel weapons than by the strangers. Pinto was in- 
vited by the Daimio of Bungo to visit him, which he did. The na- 
tives began immediately to make guns and powder, the secret of which 
was taught them by their visitors. In a few years, as we know from 
Japanese history, fire-arms came into general use. To this day many 
country people call them " Tanegashima." Thus, in the beginning, 
hand-in-hand came foreigners, Christianity, and fire-arms. To many a 
native they are still each and equal members of a trinity of terrors, and 
one is a synonym of the other. Christianity to most of "the heathen" 
still means big guns and powder. 

In those days commerce and piracy, war and religion, were closely 
united ; and the sword and the cross were twin weapons, like the cime- 
ter and the Koran of the Turks, by which the pious robbers of the 
most Christian empires of Spain and Portugal went forth to conquer 
weak nations. 

The pirate-trader who brought Pinto to Japan cleared twelve hun- 
dred per cent, on his cargo, and the three Portuguese returned, loaded 
with presents, to China. This new market attracted hundreds of Por- 
tuguese adventurers to Japan, who found a ready welcome at the hands 
of the impressible people. The daimios vied with each other in at- 
tracting the foreigners to their shores, their object being to obtain the 
weapons, and get the wealth which would increase their power, as the 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 249 

authority of the Ashikaga shoguns had before this time been cast off, 
and each chief was striving for local supremacy. 

The missionary followed the merchant. Already the Portuguese 
priests and Franciscan friars were numerous in India and the straits. 
A native of Satsuma named Anjiro, who, having killed a man, had 
fled to Pinto's boat, and was carried off by him, after the long suffer- 
ings of remorse reached Goa, becoming a convert to Christianity. 
Learning to read and write Portuguese, and having mastered the whole 
Christian doctrine, he became Xavier's interpreter. To the question 
whether the Japanese would be likely to accept Christianity, Anjirc 
answered — in words that seem fresh, pertinent, and to have been ut- 
tered but yesterday, so true are they still — that " his people would not 
immediately assent to what might be said to them, but they would 
investigate what I might affirm respecting religion by a multitude of 
questions, and, above all, by observing whether my conduct agreed with 
my words. This done, the king (daimio), the nobility, and adult pop- 
ulation would flock to Christ, being a nation which always follows rea- 
son as a guide." The words are recorded by Xavier himself. 

In 1549, the party of two Jesuits and two Japanese landed at Ka- 
goshima, in Satsuma. Xavier, after studying the rudiments of the lan- 
guage, beyond which he never advanced, and making diligent use of 
the pictures of the Virgin and Child, soon left the capital of this war- 
like clan, for the city had not been favored with the commerce of the 
Portuguese; and, as the missionaries had not come to improve the 
material resources of the province, they were not warmly welcomed. 
He then went to Bungo and Nagato. Besides having an interpreter, 
though unable to preach, he used to read the Gospel of Matthew trans- 
lated by Anjiro into Japanese, and Romanized. Though unable to 
understand much of it, he read it in public with great effect. There 
trade was flourishing and enriching the daimios, and he was warmly 
received by them. His next step was a journey to Kioto. There, in- 
stead of the extraordinary richness of the sovereign's palace, which he 
had expected to see plated with gold on the roofs and ceilings, with 
tables of the same metal, and all the other wonders as related by Mar- 
co Polo, he found it but a city which wars and fires had rendered des- 
olate, and almost uninhabitable, except as a camp. Here he employed 
the policy of austerity and poverty, his appearance being that of a beg- 
gar, though later he used wealth and great display in his ministrations, 
with marked effect. The mikado's (dairi) authority, he found, was 
merely nominal ; the shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, ruled only over a 



250 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

few provinces around the capital. Every one's thoughts were of war, 
and battle was imminent. The very idea of an interview with the mi- 
kado was an absurdity, and one with the Kubo sama (shogun) an im- 
possibility, his temporary poverty not permitting him to make a pres- 
ent effectively large enough for the latter, and rendering him con- 
temptible in the eyes of the people. He attempted to preach several 
times in the streets, but, not being master of the language, failed to se- 
cure attention, and after two weeks left the city disgusted. Not long 
after, having turned his attention to the furtherance of trade and di- 
plomacy, he departed from Japan, disheartened by the realities of mis- 
sionary work. He had, however, inspired others, who followed him, 
and their success was amazingly great. Within five years after Xavier 
visited Kioto, seven churches were established in the vicinity of the 
city itself, while scores of Christian communities had sprung up in the 
south-west. In 1581, there were two hundred churches, and one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand native Christians. In Bungo, where Xavier 
won his way by costly gifts, as he did in Suwo by diplomacy ; in Hari- 
ma and Omura, the daimios themselves had professed the new faith, 
while Nobunaga, the hater of the Buddhists, openly favored the Chris- 
tians, and gave them eligible sites upon which to build dwellings and 
churches. Ready to use any weapons against the bonzes, Nobunaga 
hoped to use the foreigners as a counterpoise to their arrogance. 

In 1583, an embassy of four young noblemen was dispatched by 
the Christian daimios of Kiushiu to the pope, to declare themselves 
vassals of the Holy See. Eight years afterward, having had audience 
of Philip II. of Spain, and kissed the feet of the pope at Rome, they 
returned, bringing with them seventeen Jesuit missionaries — an im- 
portant addition to the many Portuguese religious of that order al- 
ready in Japan. Spanish mendicant friars from the Philippine Isl- 
ands, with Dominicans and Augustans, also flocked into the country, 
preaching and zealously proselyting. The number of " Christians " at 
the time of the highest success of the missionaries in Japan was, ac- 
cording to their own figures, six hundred thousand — a number which 
I believe is no exaggeration, the quantity, not quality, being consid- 
ered. The Japanese, less accurately, set down a total of two million 
nominal adherents to the Christian sects, large numerical statements 
in Japanese books being untrustworthy, and often worthless. Among 
their converts were several princes, and large numbers of lords and 
gentlemen in high official position, generals and captains in the army, 
and the admiral and officers of the Japanese fleets. Several of the la- 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 251 

dies of the households of Hideyoshi, Hideyori, and Iyeyasii, besides 
influential women of noble blood in many provinces whose rulers were 
not Christians, added to their power, while at the seat of government 
the chief interpreter was a Jesuit father. Churches, chapels, and resi- 
dences of the fathers were numbered by thousands, and in some prov- 
inces crosses and Christian shrines were as numerous as the kindred 
evidences of Buddhism had been before. The fathers and friars had 
traveled or preached from one end of the western half of Hondo to 
the other; northward in Echizen, Kaga, Echigo, and Oshiu, and in 
the provinces of the Tokaido. They had also one church in Yedo. 

The causes of this astonishingly rapid success of the Jesuits are to be 
sought in the mental soil which the missionaries found ready prepared 
for their seed. It was in the later days of the Ashikaga, when Xavier 
arrived in Japan. Centuries of misrule and anarchy had reduced the 
people, on whom the burdens of war fell, to the lowest depths of pov- 
erty and misery. The native religions then afforded little comfort or 
consolation to their adherents. Shinto had sunk to a myth almost 
utterly unknown to the people, and so overshadowed by Buddhism 
that only a few scholars knew its origin. Buddhism, having lost itfi 
vitalizing power, had degenerated into a commercial system of prayers 
and masses, in which salvation could be purchased only by the merit 
of the deeds and prayers of the priests. Nevertheless, its material and 
outward splendor were never greater. Gorgeous vestments, blazing 
lights, imposing processions, altars of dazzling magnificence, and a 
sensuous worship captivated the minds of the people, while indulgences 
were sold, and saints' days and holidays and festivals were multiplied. 

The Japanese are an intensely imaginative people ; and whatever 
appeals to the aesthetics of sense, or fires the imagination, leads the 
masses captive at the will of their religious leaders. The priests of 
Rome came with crucifixes in their hands, eloquence on their lips, and 
with rich dresses, impressive ceremonies, processions, and mysteries 
out-dazzled the scenic display of the Buddhists. They brought pict- 
ures, gilt crosses, and images, and erected gorgeous altars, which they 
used as illuminated texts for their sermons. They preached the doc- 
trine of an immediate entrance into paradise after death to all be- 
lievers, a doctrine which thrilled their hearers to an uncontrollable 
pitch of enthusiasm. Buddhism promises rest in heaven only after 
many transformations, births, and the repeated miseries of life and 
death, the very thought of which wearies the soul. The story of the 
Cross, made vivid by fervid eloquence, tears, and harrowing pictures 



252 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

and colored images, which bridged the gulf of remoteness, and made 
the act of Calvary near and intensely real, melted the hearts of the 
impressible natives. Furthermore, the transition from the religion of 
India to that of Rome was extremely easy. The very idols of Buddha 
served, after a little alteration with the chisel, for images of Christ. 
The Buddhist saints were easily transformed into the Twelve Apostles. 
The Cross took the place of the torii. It was emblazoned on the hel- 
mets and banners of the warriors, and embroidered on their breasts. 
The Japanese soldiers went forth to battle like Christian crusaders. 
In the roadside shrine Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, made way for 
the Virgin, the mother of God. Buddhism was beaten with its own 
weapons. Its own artillery was turned against it. Nearly all the 
Christian churches were native temples, sprinkled and purified. The 
same bell, whose boom had so often quivered the air announcing the 
orisons and matins of paganism, was again blessed and sprinkled, and 
called the same hearers to mass and confession ; the same lavatory 
that fronted the temple served for holy-water or baptismal font ; the 
same censer that swung before Amida could be refilled to waft Chris- 
tian incense; the new convert could use unchanged his old beads, 
bells, candles, incense, and all the paraphernalia of his old faith in 
celebration of the new. 

Almost every thing that is distinctive in the Roman form of Chris- 
tianity is to be found in Buddhism : images, pictures, lights, altars, 
incense, vestments, masses, beads, wayside shrines, monasteries, nun- 
neries, celibacy, fastings, vigils, retreats, pilgrimages, mendicant vows, 
shorn heads, orders, habits, uniforms, nuns, convents, purgatory, saint- 
ly and priestly intercession, indulgences, works of supererogation, 
pope, archbishops, abbots, abbesses, monks, neophytes, relics and relic- 
worship, exclusive burial-ground, etc., etc., etc. 

The methods which the foreign priests employed to propagate the 
new faith were not such as commend themselves to a candid mind. 
The first act of propagation was an act of Mariolatry. They brought 
with them the spirit of the Inquisition, then in full blast in Spain and 
Portugal, which they had used there for the reclamation of native and 
Dutch heretics. In Japan they began to attack most violently the 
character of the native bonzes, and to incite their converts to insult 
the gods, destroy the idols, and burn or desecrate the old shrines. 
They made plentiful use of the gold furnished liberally by the kings 
of Portugal and Spain, under the name of " alms." In two- years and 
a half Xavier received one thousand doubloons (fifteen thousand dol- 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 253 

lars) for the support of his mission. This abundance of the foreign 
precious metal was noticed especially by the native rulers. In Kiu- 
shiu the daimios themselves became Christians, and they compelled 
their subjects to embrace their religion. The people of whole districts 
of country were ordered to become Christians, or to leave their land 
and the homes of their fathers, and go into banishment. The bonzes 
were exiled or killed ; and fire and sword, as well as preaching, were 
employed as instruments of conversion. Furthermore, fictitious mira- 
cles were frequently got up to utilize the credulity of the superstitious 
in furthering the spread of the faith, glowing accounts of which may 
be found in Leon Pages' " Histoire de la R. C." Not only do the na- 
tive Japanese writers record these things as simple matter of fact, but 
the letters of the Jesuits themselves, and the books written by them, 
teem with instances of ferocious cruelty and pious fraud wrought in 
their behalf, or at their instigation. The following passages from the 
Jesuit Charlevoix's " Histoire du Christianisme au Japon " are trans- 
lated by Dr. Walter Dixon in his " Japan :" " Sumitanda, King of 
Omura, who had become a Christian in 1562, declared open war 
against the devils [bonzes]. He dispatched some squadrons through 
his kingdom to ruin all the idols and temples without any regard to 
the bonzes' rage.". ... "In 1577, the lord of the island of Ama- 
cusa [Amakusa] issued his proclamation, by which his subjects — 
whether bonzes or gentlemen, merchants or tradesmen — were required 
either to turn Christians, or to leave the country the very next day. 
They almost all submitted, and received baptism, so that in a short 
time there were more than twenty churches in the kingdom. God 
wrought miracles to confirm the faithful in their belief." The Daimio 
of Takatsiiki, Settsu, " labored with a zeal truly apostolic to extirpate 
the idolaters out of his states. He sent word that they should either 
receive the faith, or be gone immediately out of his country, for he 
would acknowledge none for his subjects but such as acknowledged 
the true God. The declaration obliged them all to accept instruction, 
which cut out work enough for all the fathers and missionaries at 
Meaco [Miako]." 

The Daimio of Bungo at one time, during war, destroyed a most 
prodigious and magnificent temple, with a colossal statue, burning 
three thousand monasteries to ashes, and razing the temples to the 
ground. The comment of the Jesuit writer on this is, " This ardent 
zeal of the prince is an evident instance of his faith and charity." 
This does not, however, sound like an echo of the song once heard 

17 



254 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

above the Bethlehem hills, few echoes of which the Japanese have as 
yet heard. 

As the different orders, Jesuits, Franciscans, and Augustinians, in- 
creased, they began to trench upon each other's parishes. This gave 
rise to quarrels, indecent squabbles, and mutual vituperation, at which 
the pagans sneered and the bonzes rejoiced. While the friars of 
these orders were rigorously excommunicating each other, thinking 
heathen were not favorably impressed with the new religion. Chris- 
tianity received her sorest wound in the house of her friends. 

At this time, also, political and religious war was almost universal 
in Europe, and the quarrels of the various nationalities followed the 
buccaneers, pirates, traders, and missionaries to the distant seas of 
Japan. The Protestant, Dutch, and English stirred up the hatred 
and fear of the Japanese against the papists, and finally against each 
other. Spaniards and Portuguese blackened the character of the here- 
tics, and as vigorously abused each other when it served their interest. 
All of which impelled the shrewd Japanese to contrive how to use 
them one against the other, an art which they still understand. All 
foreigners, but especially Portuguese, then were slave-traders, and 
thousands of Japanese were bought and sold and shipped to Macao, 
in China, and to the Philippines. The long civil wars, and the misery 
caused by them, and the expedition to Corea, had so impoverished the 
people that slaves became so cheap that even the Malay and negro 
servants of the Portuguese, speculated in the bodies of Japanese slaves 
who were bought and sold and transported. Hideyoshi repeatedly 
issued decrees threatening with death these slave-traders, and even the 
purchasers. The sea-ports of Hirado and Nagasaki were the resort 
of the lowest class of adventurers from all European nations, and the 
result was a continual series of uproars, broils, and murders among 
the foreigners, requiring ever and anon the intervention of the native 
authorities to keep the peace. To the everlasting honor of some of 
the Jesuit bishops and priests be it said, they endeavored to do all 
they could to prevent the traffic in the bodies of men. 

Such a picture of foreign influence and of Christianity, which is 
here drawn in mild colors, as the Japanese saw it, was not calculated 
to make a permanently favorable impression on the Japanese mind. 

While Nobunaga lived, and the Jesuits basked in his favor, all was 
progress and victory. Hideyoshi, though at first favorable to the new 
religion, issued, in 1587, a decree of banishment against the foreign 
missionaries. The Jesuits closed their churches and chapels, ceased 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 255 

to preach in public, but carried on their proselyting work in private 
as vigorously as ever, averaging ten thousand converts a year, until 
1590. The Spanish mendicant friars, pouring in from the Philippines, 
openly defied the Japanese laws, preaching in their usual garb in pub- 
lic, and in their intemperate language. This aroused Hideyoshi's 
attention, and his decree of expulsion was renewed. Some of the 
churches were burned. In 1596, six Franciscan, three Jesuit, and sev- 
enteen Japanese converts were taken to Nagasaki, and there crucified. 
Still the Jesuits resided in the country, giving out to the people that 
the Spaniards nourished the political designs against Japan, and that 
the decrees of expulsion had been directed against the priests of that 
nation, and that the late outburst of persecution was an explosion of 
zeal on the part of a few subordinate officials. Several of the gener- 
als of the army in Corea still openly professed the Christian faith. 

When the taiko died, affairs seemed to take a more favorable turn, 
but only for a few years. The Christians looked to Hideyori for 
their friend and quasi-leader. The battle of Sekigahara, and the de- 
feat of Hideyori's following, blew their hopes to the winds ; and the 
ignominious death of Ishida, Konishi, and Otani, the Christian gener- 
als who had witnessed a good confession both as warriors and as up- 
holders of the faith in Corea and at home, drove their adherents to 
the verge of despair. Iyeyasu re-adjusted the feudal relations of his 
vassals in Kiushiu ; and as the taiko had also re-arranged the fiefs, the 
political status of the Christians was profoundly altered. The new 
daimios, carrying the policy of their predecessors as taught them by 
the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute their Chris- 
tian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their faith. The native 
converts resisted even to blood and the taking-up of arms. This was 
an entirely new thing under the Japanese sun. Hitherto the attitude 
of the peasantry to the Government had been one of passive obedi- 
ence and slavish submission. The idea of armed rebellion among the 
farmers was something so wholly new that Iyeyasu suspected foreign 
instigation. Color was given to this idea by the fact that the foreign- 
ers still secretly or openly paid court to Hideyori, and at the same 
time freely dispersed gold and gifts, in addition to religious comfort, 
to the persecuted. Iyeyasu became more vigilant as his suspicions in- 
creased, and, resolving to crush this spirit of independence and intimi- 
date the foreign emissaries, met every outbreak with bloody reprisals. 
In 1606, an edict from Yedo forbade the exercise of the Christian re- 
ligion, but an outward show of obedience warded off active persecu- 



256 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

tion. In 1610, the Spanish friars again aroused the wrath of the Gov- 
ernment by defying its commands, and exhorting the native converts 
to do likewise. In 1611, Iyeyasu obtained documentary proof of 
what he had long suspected, viz., the existence of a plot on the part of 
the native converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the 
position of a subject state. The chief conspirator, Okubo, then Gov- 
ernor of Sado, to which place thousands of Christian exiles had been 
sent to work the mines, was to be made hereditary ruler by the for- 
eigners. The names of the chief native and foreign conspirators were 
written down, with the usual seal of blood from the end of the middle 
finger of the ringleader. With this paper was found concealed, in an 
iron box in an old well, a vast hoard of gold and silver. 

Iyeyasu now put forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what 
he believed to be a pestilent breeder of sedition and war. Fresh edicts 
were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan, Dominican, and Au- 
gustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits, and hundreds of 
native priests and catechists, were embarked by force on board junks, 
and sent out of the country. 

In 1615, Iyeyasu pushed matters to an extreme with Hideyori, who 
was then entertaining some Jesuit priests ; and, calling out the troops 
of Kiushiu and the Kuanto, laid siege to the castle of Ozaka. A bat- 
tle of unusual ferocity and bloody slaughter raged, on the 9th of June, 
1615, ending in the burning of the citadel, and the total defeat and 
death of Hideyori and thousands of his followers. The Jesuit fathers 
say that one hundred thousand men perished in this brief war, of 
which vivid details are given in the " Histoire de la Religion Chretienne." 
The Christian cause was now politically and irretrievably ruined. Hil- 
dredth remarks that Catholicism in Japan " received its death-blow in 
that same year in which a few Puritan pilgrims landed at Plymouth 
to plant the obscure seeds of a new and still growing Protestant em- 
pire." 

The exiled foreign friars, however, kept secretly returning, apparent- 
ly desirous of the crown of martyrdom. Hidetada, the shogun, now 
pronounced sentence of death against any foreign priest found in the 
country. Iyemitsu, his successor, restricted all foreign commerce to 
Nagasaki and Hirado ; all Japanese were forbidden to leave the coun- 
try on pain of death; and in 1624 all foreigners, except Dutch and 
Chinese, were banished from Japan, and an edict was issued command- 
ing the destruction of all vessels beyond a certain diminutive size, and 
restricting the universal model in ship-building to that of the coasting 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 257 

junk. Fresh persecutions followed, many apostate lords and gentry 
now favoring the Government. Fire and sword were used to extir- 
pate Christianity, and to paganize the same people who in their youth 
were Christianized by the same means. Thousands of the native con- 
verts fled to China, Formosa, and the Philippines. All over the em- 
pire, but especially at Ozaka and in Kiushiu, the people were com- 
pelled to trample on the cross, or on a copper plate engraved with the 
representation of " the Christian criminal God." The Christians suf- 
fered all sorts of persecutions. They were wrapped in straw sacks, 
piled in heaps of living fuel, and set on fire. All the tortures that 
barbaric hatred or refined cruelty could invent were used to turn thou- 
sands of their fellow-men into carcasses and ashes. Yet few of the 
natives quailed, or renounced their faith. They calmly let the fire of 
wood cleft from the crosses before which they once prayed consume 
them, or walked cheerfully to the blood-pit, or were flung alive into 
the open grave about to be filled up. Mothers carried their babes at 
their bosoms, or their children in their arms to the fire, the sword, or 
the precipice's edge, rather than leave them behind to be educated in 
the pagan faith. If any one doubt the sincerity and fervor of the 
Christian converts of to-day, or the ability of the Japanese to accept a 
higher form of faith, or their willingness to suffer for what they be- 
lieve, they have but to read the accounts preserved in English, Dutch, 
French, Latin, and Japanese, of various witnesses to the fortitude of 
the Japanese Christians of the seventeenth century. The annals of 
the primitive Church furnish no instances of sacrifice or heroic con- 
stancy, in the Coliseum or the Roman arenas, that were not paralleled 
on the dry river-beds and execution-grounds of Japan. 

Finally, in 1637, at Shimabara, the Christians rose by tens of thou- 
sands in arms, seized an old castle, repaired and fortified it, and raised 
the flag of rebellion. Armies from Kiushiu and the Kuanto, com- 
posed mainly of veterans of Corea and Ozaka, were sent by the sho- 
gun to besiege it. Their commanders expected an easy victory, and 
sneered at the idea of having any difficulty in subduing these farmers 
and peasants. A siege of two months, by land and water, was, how- 
ever, necessary to reduce the fortress.* Thousands of the rebels, 
were hurled from the rock of Pappenburg, or were banished to va- 



* Dr. Geerts, in the Chrysa?ithemum, Jan., 1883, and in the "Transactions of 
the Asiatic Society of Japan," vol. xi., with original documents, vindicates the 
Dutch from the aspersions cast upon them by Tavernier and Kaempfer. 



258 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIBE. 



rious provinces, or put to death by torture. Others escaped, and 
fled to the island of Formosa, joining their brethren already there. 
The edicts prohibiting the " evil sect " were now promulgated and 
published permanently all over the empire, and new ones commanded 
that, as long as the sun should shine, no foreigners should enter Ja- 
pan, or natives leave it. The Dutch gained the privilege of a paltry 
trade and residence on the little fan-shaped island of Deshima (outer 
island), in front of Nagasaki. Here, under degrading restrictions and 
constant surveillance, lived a little company of less than twenty Hol- 
landers, who were allowed one ship per annum to come from the 




"The Tavpeian Rock of Japan:" the Island of Pappenberg, in Nagasaki Harbor. (Now 
used as a picnic resort.) 

Dutch East Indies and exchange commodities of Japan for those of 
Holland. 

After nearly a hundred years of Christianity and foreign inter- 
course, the only apparent results of this contact with another religion 
and civilization were the adoption of gunpowder, and fire-arms as 
weapons, the use of tobacco, and the habit of smoking, the making 
of sponge-cake (still called Castira— the Japanese form of Castile), 
the naturalization into the language of a few foreign words', the intro- 
duction of new and strange forms of disease, among which the Japa- 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 259 

nese count the scourge of the venereal virus, and the permanent addi- 
tion to that catalogue of terrors which priest and magistrate in Asiat- 
ic countries ever hold as weapons to overawe the herd. For centuries 
the mention of that name would bate the breath, blanch the cheek, 
and smite with fear as with an earthquake shock. It was the syno- 
nym of sorcery, sedition, and all that was hostile to the purity of the 
home and the peace of society. All over the empire, in every city, , 
town, village, and hamlet ; by the roadside, ferry, or mountain pass ; 
at every entrance to the capital, stood the public notice-boards, on 
which, with prohibitions against the great crimes that disturb the 
relations of society and government, was one tablet, written with a 
deeper brand of guilt, with a more hideous memory of blood, with a 
more awful terror of torture, than when the like superscription was 
affixed at the top of a cross that stood between two thieves on a little 
hill outside Jerusalem. Its daily and familiar sight startled ever and 
anon the peasant to clasp hands and utter a fresh prayer, the bonze 
to add new venom to his maledictions, the magistrate to shake his 
head, and to the mother a ready word to hush the crying of her fret- 
ful babe. That name was Christ. So thoroughly was Christianity, 
or the "Jashiu mon " (corrupt sect), supposed to be eradicated before 
the end of the seventeenth century, that its existence was historical, 
remembered only as an awful scar on the national memory. No ves- 
tiges were supposed to be left of it, and no knowledge of its tenets 
was held, save by a very few scholars in Yedo, trained experts, who 
were kept, as a sort of spiritual blood-hounds, to scent out the adher- 
ents of the accursed creed. 

So perfect was the work done, that the Government believed fully, 
as Europeans, and among them Mr. Lecky, who uses the example to 
strengthen his argument, that " persecution had extirpated Christian- 
ity in Japan." It was left to our day, since the recent opening of 
Japan, for them to discover that a mighty fire had been smoldering 
for over two centuries beneath the ashes of persecutions. As late as 
1829, seven persons, six men and an old woman, were crucified in 
Ozaka, on suspicion of being Christians and communicating with for- 
eigners. When the French brethren of the Mission Apostolique, of 
Paris, came to Nagasaki in 1860, they found in the villages around 
them over ten thousand people Avho held the faith of their fathers of 
the seventeenth century. 

A few interesting traces and relics of the century of Christianity 
and foreigners still exist in Japan. In the language the names of 



260 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



God (Deus), Holy Spirit (Espiritu Santo), Jesus (Yesu), and Christ 
(Kirishito) have remained. Castira is still the name of sponge-cake, 
so universally used, and the making of which was first taught by the 
men of Castile ; and the Japanese having no Z, change that letter into r. 
The Japanese have no word for bread ; they use the Latin pan. The 
words taffel (table), Dontaku (Sunday), cuppu (cup), rauda (lauda- 
num), yerikter (electricity), bouton (button), briki (tin), and many of 
the names of drugs and medicines, and rare metals and substances, 
terms in science, etc., and even some in common use, are but the Jap- 
anized forms of the Dutch words. I have seen "Weird Specifica" 




Hollander on Deshima looking for the Arrival of a Ship. 

and " Voum Von Mitter " in large Roman letters, or in katagana, ad- 
vertised on the hanging signs of the drug-shops in every part of the 
country I have been in, from Kobe to near Niigata, and other trav- 
elers have noticed it nearly everywhere in Japan. It is the old or 
incorrect spelling of the name of some Dutch nostrum. 

The natives speak of Christianity as the religion of the " Lord of 
Heaven." The destruction of the Christian churches, crosses, images, 
etc., was so thorough that the discovery of relics by modern seekers 
has been very rare. A few years ago, shortly after Perry's arrival, 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 261 

there was in Suruga a cave, to which the country people resorted in 
large numbers, on account of the great efficacy believed to reside in an 
image of the mother of Shaka (Buddha), with her infant in her arms. 
The idol was reputed to have healed many diseases. An educated 
samurai, who hated all foreigners and their ways and works, especially 
the " Jesus doctrine," happening to enter the cave, perceived in a mo- 
ment that the image was a relic of the old Christian worship. It was 
nothing else than an image of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. 
The samurai dashed it to pieces. 

The attempts of the English and French to open a permanent trade 
with Japan are described in Hildredth's "Japan as It Was and Is." 
Captain John Saris, with the ships Clove, Thomas, and Hector, left 
England in April, 1611, with letters from the king, James I. of En- 
gland, to the " emperor " (shogun) of Japan. Landing at Hirado, he 
was well received, and established a factory in charge of Mr. Richard 
Cocks. With Will Adams and seventeen of his company, Saris set 
out to see Iyeyasii, who was then living at the modern Shidzuoka. 
He touched at Hakata, traversed the Inland Sea, past Shimonoseki, to 
Ozaka ; thence by boat to Fushimi, thence by horse and palanquin to 
Sumpu (Shidzuoka). In the interview accorded the English captain, 
Iyeyasii invited him to visit his son, Hidetada, the ruling shogun at 
Yedo. Saris went to Yedo, visiting, on his way, Kamakura and the 
great copper image of Dai Butsu, some of the Englishmen going in- 
side of it and shouting in it for the fun of the thing. They also 
wrote their own names inside of it, as foreign tourists, visitors, and 
even personal friends of republican rulers do to this day, and as the 
natives have always done, to immortalize themselves. After a stay 
in Yedo, they touched at Uraga ; thence returned to Sumpu, where a 
treaty, or privileges of trade, in eight articles, was signed and given to 
Saris. It bore the signature of Minamoto Iyeyasii. 

After a tour of three months, Saris arrived at Hirado again, having 
visited Kioto, where he saw the splendid Christian churches and Jes- 
uit colleges, on his way. After discouraging attempts to open a trade 
with Siam, Corea, and China, and hostilities having broken out be- 
tween them and the Dutch, the English abandoned the project of per- 
manent trade with Japan; and all subsequent attempts to reopen it 
failed. 

Will Adams, who was an English pilot, and the first of his nation 
in Japan, is spoken of frequently, and in no flattering terms, by the 
Jesuit fathers. He arrived in Japan in 1607, and lived in or near 



262 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Yedo till tie died, in 1620. By the sheer force of a manly, honest 
character, this sturdy Briton, " who may have seen Shakspeare and 
Ben Jonson" and Queen Elizabeth, rose into favor with Iyeyasii, 
and gained the regard of the people. His knowledge of ship-build- 
ing, mathematics, and foreign affairs made him a very useful man. 
Although treated with honor and kindness, he was not allowed to 
leave Japan. He had a wife and daughter in England. He was 
made an officer, and given the revenues of the village of Henri, in Sa- 
gami, near the modern Yokosuka, where are situated the dry-docks, 
machine-shops, and ship-building houses in which the modern war-ves- 
sels of the imperial navy are built and launched — a fitting location, so 
near the ground made classic by this exile from the greatest marine 
nation in the world. Will Adams had a son and daughter born to 
him in Japan, and there are still living Japanese who claim descent 
from him. One of the streets of Yedo was named after him, Anjin 
Cho (Pilot Street), and the people of that street still hold an annual 
celebration on the 15th of June in his honor, one of which I attended 
in 1873. When Adams died, he, and afterward his Japanese wife, 
were buried on the summit of one of the lovely hills overlooking the 
Bay of Yedo, G-oldsborough Inlet, and the surrounding beautiful and 
classic landscape. Adams chose the spot himself. The people of 
Yedo erected memorial-stone lanterns at his tomb. Perry's fleet, in 
1854, anchored within the very shadow of the Englishman's sepul- 
chre. In May, 1872, Mr. Walters, of Yokohama, after a study of Hil- 
dreth and some search, discovered the tomb, which others had sought 
for in vain. Two neat stone shafts, in the characteristic style of na- 
tive monumental architecture, set on a stone pediment, mark the spot. 
I visited it, in company of the bonze in charge of the Shin shiu tem- 
ple of the village, in July, 1873. 

In Charlevoix's " Histoire du Christianisme au Japon," it is related 
that the Abbe Sidotti, an Italian priest, came to Manila, with the in- 
tention of landing in Japan, and once more attempting to regain Japan 
to Christianity. After several years' waiting, he persuaded the cap- 
tain of a vessel to take him to Satsuma and set him ashore. This 
was done in 1709. He was arrested and sent to Yedo. There he was 
confined in a house in the city district, called Koishikawa, on the 
slope of a hill ever since called Kirishitan zaka (Christian slope), as 
the valley at the foot is called Kirishitan dane (Christian valley), and 
the place Kirishitan gui (Christian neighborhood). Here the censors, 
judges, scholars, and interpreters assembled, and for many days ex- 



CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGNERS. 263 

amined him, asking many questions and gaining much information 
concerning foreign countries. In another building near by, an old 
man and woman who had professed Christianity, and had been com- 
pelled to recant, were confined. After the abbe's arrival, exhorted by 
him, they again embraced their old faith. The abbe gave his name 
as Jean Baptiste. He made a cross of red paper, which he pasted on 
the wall of his room. He was kept prisoner, living for several years 
after his arrival, in Yedo, and probably died a natural death. 

About ten years ago, the Rev. S. R. Brown, D.D., discovered a 
book called Sei Yd Ki Bun (Annals of Western Nations), in three 
volumes, written by the Japanese scholar who examined the abbe. 
The books contain a summary of the history and judicial proceedings 
in the case, and the information gained from the Italian. The whole 
narrative is of intensest interest. While in Tokio, in 1874, 1 endeav- 
ored to find the site of the Inquisition, and the martyr's tomb. 

Tradition says that the abbe was buried on the opposite slope of 
the valley corresponding to that on which he lived, under an old pine- 
tree, near a spring. Pushing my way through scrub bamboo along a 
narrow path scarcely perceptible for the undergrowth, I saw a name- 
less stone near a hollow, evidently left by a tree that had long since 
fallen and rotted away. A little run of water issued from a spring 
hard by. At the foot was a rude block of stone, with a hollow for 
water. Both were roughly hewn, and scarcely dressed with the chisel. 
Such stones in Japan mark the graves of those who die in disgrace, 
or unknown, or uncared for. This was all that was visible to remind 
the visitor of one whose heroic life deserved a nobler monument. 

The influence of a century of Papal Christianity in Japan on the 
national ethics and character was nil. A careful examination has not 
revealed any trace of new principles of morals adopted by the Japa- 
nese from foreigners in the sixteenth, as has been gained in the nine- 
teenth century, though the literary, scientific, and material gains were 
great. The Japanese mental constitution and moral character have 
been profoundly modified in turn by Buddhism and Confucianism, 
but the successive waves of Christianism that passed over Japan left 
no sediment teeming with fertility, rather a barren waste like that 
which the river-floods leave in autumn. I should be glad to see these 
statements disproved. Let us hope that the Christianity of the present, 
whether Catholic, Protestant, or Russo-Greek, may work a profounder 
and more beneficent revolution in faith and moral practice, and that 
only that kingdom may be established which is not of this world. 



264 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XXVI. 

IYEYASU, THE FOUNDER OF YEDO. 

The last of struggles of rival military factions for the possession of 
power is now to be narrated, and the weary record of war and strife 
closed. Since 1159, when the Taira and Minamoto came to blows in 
the capital, and the imperial palace fell into the hands of armed men, 
and the domination of the military families began, until the opening 
of the seventeenth century the history of Japan is but that of civil 
war and slaughter. The history of two centuries and a half that fol- 
lowed the triumphs of Iyeyasu is that of profound peace. Few na- 
tions in the world have enjoyed peace so long. 

The man who now stood foremost among men, who was a legislator 
as well as warrior, who could win a victory and garner the fruits of it, 
was Tokugawa Iyeyasu, the hero of Sekigahara, the most decisive bat- 
tle in Japanese history, the creator of the perfected dual system and 
of feudalism, and the founder of Yedo. 

Yedo is not an ancient city. Its site becomes historic when Yania- 
to Dake, in the second century of. our era, marched to conquer the 
Eastern tribes. In later times, the Minamoto chieftains subdued the 
plains of the Kuanto. Until the twelfth century, the region around 
the Bay of Yedo was wild, uncivilized, and sparsely populated, and 
the inhabitants were called by the polished Kioto people "Adzuma 
Ebisu," or Eastern boors. 

In the fifteenth century, a small castle was built on the rising 
ground within the western circuit of the present stronghold, and near 
Koji machi (Yeast Street), where now stands the British Legation. 
East of the castle was a small relay village, Temma Cho, near the 
modern site of the prison, at which officials or travelers, on their way 
to Kamakura or Kioto, via the Tokaido, might stop for rest and re- 
freshment, or to obtain fresh kagos (palanquins), bearers, and bag- 
gage-carriers. The name of the commander of the castle, Ota Do- 
kuan, a retainer of the shogun at Kamakura, and a doughty warrior, 
is still preserved in the memories of the people, and in poetry, song, 



IYEYASU, THE FOUNDER OF YEDO. 265 

art, and local lore. A hill in the north of the city, a delightful pic- 
nic resort, bears his name, and the neighborhood of Shiba was his 
favorite drill-ground and rendezvous before setting out on forays or 
campaigns. 

One romantic incident, in which a maiden of equal wit and beauty 
bore chief part, has made him immortal, though the name of the fair 
one has been forgotten. One day, while out hawking near Yedo, a 
heavy shower of rain fell. Dismounting from his horse, he, with his 
attendant, approached a house, and in very polite terms begged the 
loan of a grass rain-coat (mino). A pretty girl, daughter of the man 
of the house, came out, listened, blushing, to the request, but, answer- 
ing not a word, ran to the garden, plucked a flower, handed it, with 
mischief in her eyes, to the hero, and then coquettishly ran away. 
Ota, chagrined and vexed at such apparently frivolous manners and 
boorish inhospitality, and the seeming slight put upon his rank, re- 
turned in wrath, and through the rain, to his castle, inwardly cursing 
the "Adzuma Ebisu," who did not know how to treat a gentleman. 
It happened that, shortly after, some court nobles from Kioto were 
present, sharing the hospitalities of the castle at Yedo, to whom he 
related the incident. To his own astonishment, the guests were de- 
lighted. " Here," said they, " in the wilderness, and among the 'Ad- 
zuma Ebisu,' is a gentle girl, who is not only versed in classic poetry, 
but had the wit and maidenly grace to apply it in felicitous style." 
Ota had asked for a rain-coat (mino) ; the little coquette was too po- 
lite to acknowledge she had none. How could she say " no " to such 
a gallant ? Rather, to disguise her negative, she had handed him a 
mountain camellia ; and of this flower the poet of Yamato had, centu- 
ries ago, sung: "Although the mountain camellia has seven or eight 
petals, yet I grieve to say it has no seed " (mino). 

After the death of Ota, no name of any great note is attached to 
the unimportant village or fortress; but in 1590, at the siege of Oda- 
wara, Hideyoshi suggested to his general, Iyeyasu, Yedo as the best 
site for the capital of the Kuanto. After the overthrow of the " later 
Hojo " clan, and the capture of their castle at Odawara, Iyeyasu went 
to Yedo and began to found a city. He set up his court, and watched 
his chances. 

Iyeyasu was born at Okasaki, in Mikawa, in 1 542 ; he served with 
Nobunaga and with Hideyoshi ; again fought with the latter, and 
again made terms with him. His first possessions were Mikawa and 
Suruga. In the latter province he built a fine castle at Sumpu (now 



266 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

called Shidzuoka), and made it his residence for many years. He 
seems to have had little to do with the Corean expedition. While 
busy in building Yedo in 1598, he received news of the taiko's sick- 
ness, attended his death-bed, and was urged to swear to protect the 
interests of Hideyori, then six years old. He evasively declined. 

The prospects of the boy were not very fine. In the first place, few 
people believed him to be the son of the taiko. In the second place, 
the high-spirited lords and nobles, who prided themselves on their blood 
and lineage, detested Hideyoshi as an upstart, and had been kept in 
curb only by his indomitable will and genius. They were still more 
incensed at the idea of his son Hideyori, even if a true son, succeed- 
ing. Again: Hidenobu, the nephew of Nobunaga, was living, and 
put in a claim for power. His professed conversion to Christianity 
gave him a show of support among the Christian malcontents. As 
for Iyeyasu, he was suspected of wishing to seize the military power 
of the whole empire. The strong hand of the taiko was no longer 
felt. The abandonment of the Corean invasion brought back a host 
of men and leaders, flushed with victory and ambition. Differences 
sprung up among the five governors. With such elements at work — 
thousands of men, idle, to whom war was pastime and delight, princes 
eager for a fray in which land was the spoil, more than one man aspir- 
ing to fill the dead master's place — only a spark was needed to kindle 
the blaze of war. 

The governors suspected Iyeyasu. They began to raise an army. 
Iyeyasu was not to be surprised. He followed the example of his 
rivals, and watched. I shall not tax the patience of the reader to fol- 
low through the mazes of the intricate quarrels which preceded the 
final appeal to arms. Suffice to say, that after the seizure and reseiz- 
ure of the citadel of Ozaka and the burning of the taiko's splendid 
palace in Fushimi, the army of the league and the army of Iyeyasu 
met at Sekigahara (plain of the barrier), in Omi, near Lake Biwa. 

By this battle were decided the condition of Japan for over two 
centuries, the extinction of the claims of the line of Nobunaga and 
Hideyoshi, the settlement of the Tokugawa family in hereditary suc- 
cession to the shogunate, the fate of Christianity, the isolation of Ja- 
pan from the world, the fixing into permanency of the dual system 
and of feudalism, the glory and greatness of Yedo, and peace in Japan 
for two hundred and sixty-eight years. 

In the army of the league were the five governors appointed by the 
taiko, and the lords and vassals of Hideyoshi, and most of the generals 



IYEYASU, THE FOUNDER OF YEDO. 267 

and soldiers who had served in the Corean campaigns. Among them 
were the clans of Satsuma, Choshiu, Uyesugi, and Ukita, with the 
famous Christian generals, Konishi and Ishida. This army, one hun- 
dred and eighty thousand strong, was a heterogeneous mass of veter- 
ans, acting under various leaders, and animated by various interests. 
As the leaders lacked unity of purpose, so the army was made the vic- 
tim of discordant counsels and orders. On the other hand, the army 
of one man, Iyeyasu, had one soul, one discipline, and one purpose. 
The Castle of Gif u, in Mino, was captured by one of his captains. On 
the 1st of October, 1600, Iyeyasu marched from Yedo over the To- 
kaido with a re-enforcement of thirty thousand troops. His standard 
was a golden fan and a white flag embroidered with hollyhocks. The 
diviners had declared "the road to the West was shut." Iyeyasu 
answered, "Then I shall open it by knocking." On the thirteenth 
day he arrived at Gifu, where he effected a junction with his main 
body. Some one offered him a persimmon (ogaki). He said, as it 
fell in his hand, " Ogaki waga te ni otsuru " (" Ogaki has fallen into 
my hand "). He threw it down, and allowed his attendants to eat the 
good-omened and luscious pieces. 

The battle-field at Sekigahara is an open, rolling space of ground, 
lying just inside the eastern slope of hills on the west wall of Lake 
Biwa, and part of the populous plain drained by the Kiso gawa, a 
branch of which crosses the field and winds round the hill, on which, 
at that time, stood a residence of the Portuguese missionaries. The 
Nakasendo,* one of the main roads between Yedo and Kioto, enters 
from Omi, and bisects the field from west to east, while from the north- 
west, near the village of kSekigahara, the road enters from Echizen. By 

* The Nakasendo (Central Mountain Road) is three hundred and eighty-one 
miles long. It begins at the Bridge of Sanjo, over the river at Kioto, and ends at 
Nihon Bridge in Tokio. It was used, in part, as early as the second century, but 
was more fully opened in the early part of the eighth century. It passes through 
Omi, Mino, Shinano, Kodzuke, terminating in Musashi. It can be easily trav- 
ersed in fourteen days ; but the tourist who can understand and appreciate all 
he sees would be reluctant to perform the tour, if for pleasure, in less than a 
month. There are on the route nine toge (mountain passes). It carries the trav- 
eler through the splendid scenery of Shinano, which averages twenty-five hun- 
dred feet above the sea-level, along Lake Biwa, and nearly its whole length is 
classic ground. The Nakasendo is sometimes called the Kisokaido. An excel- 
lent guide-book, in seven volumes, full of good engravings, published in 1805, 
called Kisoji Meisho Dzuye ("Collection of Pictures of Famous Places on the Na- 
kasendo"), furnishes the information that makes a sight of the famous places 
very enjoyable. The heights of the toge are as follows : 620, 2150, 3060, 4340, 3680, 
5590, 3240, and 4130 feet, respectively. 



268 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

this road the writer, in 1872, came to reach the classic site and study 
the spot around which cluster so many stirring memories. The lead- 
ers of the army of the league, having arranged their plans, marched 
out from the Castle of Ogaki at early morn on the fifteenth day of 
the Ninth month. They built a fire on a hill overlooking the narrow 
path, to guide them as they walked without keeping step. It was 
raining, and the armor and clothes of the soldiers were very wet. At 
five o'clock they reached the field, the Satsuma clan taking up their 
position at the foot of a hill facing east. Konishi, the Christian hero 
of Corea, commanded the left centre, Ishida the extreme left. Four 
famous commanders formed, with their corps, the right wing. Re- 
serves were stationed on and about the hills facing north. The cav- 
alry and infantry, according to the Guai Shi figures, numbered one 
hundred and twenty-eight thousand. 

At early morn of the same day one of the pickets of Iyeyasii's out- 
posts hastened to the tent of his general and reported that all the en- 
emy had left the Castle of Ogaki. Other pickets, from other points, 
announced the same reports simultaneously. Iyeyasii, in high glee, 
exclaimed, " The enemy has indeed fallen into my hand." He order- 
ed his generals to advance and take positions on the field, himself 
leading the centre. His force numbered seventy-five thousand. 

This was the supreme moment of Iyeyasu's life. The picture as 
given us by native artist and tradition is that of a medium-sized and 
rotund man, of full, round, and merry face, who loved mirth at the 
right time and place, and even when others could not relish or see its 
appropriateness. Of indomitable will and energy, and having a gen- 
ius for understanding men's natures, he astonished his enemies by ce- 
lerity of movement and the promptitude with which he followed up 
his advantages. Nevertheless, he was fond of whims. One of these 
was to take a hot bath before beginning a battle ; another was to is- 
sue ambiguous orders purposely when he wished to leave a subordi- 
nate to act according to his own judgment. On the present occasion, 
his whim was to go into battle with armor donned, but with no hel- 
met on, knotting his handkerchief over his bare forehead. A dense 
fog hung like a pall over the battle-field, so that one could not see far- 
ther than a few feet. 

The two armies, invisible, stood facing each other. However, Iye- 
yasu sent an officer with a body of men with white flags, who ad- 
vanced six hundred feet in front of the main army, to prevent surprise. 
At eight o'clock the fog lifted and rolled away, and the two hosts de- 



IYEYASU, THE FOUNDER OF YEDO. 269 

scried each other. After a few moments' waiting, the drums and 
conchs of the centre of each army sounded, and a sharp fire of match- 
locks and a shower of arrows opened the battle. The easterners at 
first wavered, and till noon the issue was doubtful. Cannon were 
used during the battle, but the bloodiest work was done with the 
sword and spear. One of the corps in the army of the league deserted 
and joined the side of Iyeyasii. At noon, the discipline and unity of 
the eastern army and the prowess and skill of Iyeyasii triumphed. 
Ordering his conch-blowers and drummers to beat a final charge, and 
the reserves having joined the main body, a charge was made along 
the whole line. The enemy, routed, broke and fled. Nearly all the 
wounded, and hundreds of unscathed on the battle-field, committed 
hara-kiri in order not to survive the disgrace. The pursuers cut off 
the heads of all overtaken, and the butchery was frightful. The grass 
was dyed red, and the moor became literally, not only an Aceldama, 
but a Golgotha. According to the Guai Shi's exaggerated figures, 
forty thousand heads were cut off. Of the Eastern army four thousand 
were slain, but no general was killed. The soldiers assembled, accord- 
ing to custom, after the battle in the centre of the field, to show their 
captives and heads. On this spot now stands a memorial mound of 
granite masonry within a raised earthen embankment, surrounded and 
approached from the road by rows of pine-trees. On the Kioto side 
of the village, near the shrine of Hachiman, may be seen a kubidzuka 
(barrow, or pile of heads), the monument of this awful slaughter, and 
one of the many such evidences of former wars which careful travelers 
in Japan so often notice. 

Iyeyasii went into the fight bare-headed. After the battle he sat 
down upon his camp-stool, and ordered his helmet to be brought. All 
wondered at this. Donning it with a smile, and fastening it securely, 
he said, quoting the old proverb, "After victory, knot the cords of 
your helmet." The hint was taken and acted upon. Neither rest nor 
negligence was allowed. 

The Castle of Hikone, on Lake Biwa, was immediately invested and 
captured. Ozaka was entered in great triumph. Fushimi and Kioto 
were held ; Choshiu and Satsuma yielded. Konishi and Mitsuda were 
executed on the execution - ground in Kioto. The final and speedy 
result was that all Japan submitted to the hero who, after victory, had 
knotted the cords of his helmet. 

18 



270 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XXVII. 

THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHY AND FEUDALISM. 

We have traced the rise and fall of no fewer than six families that 
held governing power in their persons or in reality. These were in 
succession the Sugawara, Fujiwara, Taira, Minamoto, Ho jo, and Ashi- 
kaga. The last half of the sixteenth century witnessed the rise, not 
of great families, but of individuals, the mark of whose genius and en- 
ergy is stamped upon Japanese history. These three individuals were 
Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasii. Who and what were they ? 

Nobunaga was one of many clan-leaders who, by genius and dar- 
ing, rose above the crowd, and planned to bring all the others in sub- 
jection to himself, that he might rule them in the mikado's name. 
From having been called Baka Dono (Lord Fool) by his enemies, he 
rose to be Nai Dai Jin, and swayed power equal to a shogun, but he 
never received that name or honor ; for not being a Minamoto, he was. 
ineligible. But for this inviolable precedent, Nobunaga might have be- 
come Sei-i Tai Shogun, and founded a family line as proud and pow- 
erful as that of the Tokugawas of later time. 

Who was Hideyoshi? This question was often asked, in his own 
time, by men who felt only too keenly what he was. This man, who 
manufactured his own ancestry on paper, was a parvenu from the 
peasant class, who, from grooming his master's horses in the stable, 
continued his master's work, as shogun, in the field, and, trampling 
on all precedent, amazed the Fujiwara peers by getting the office of 
kuambaku. 

Who was Iyeyasii ? Neither of his two predecessors had Minamoto 
blood. Iyeyasii, though at first an obscure captain under Nobunaga, 
was of true Genji stock. The blood of mikados, and of the great 
conquerors of Eastern Japan, was in his veins. He was destined to 
eclipse even the splendor of his forefathers. He was eligible, by right 
of descent, to become Sei-i Tai Shogun, or chief of all the daimios. 

The family of Tokugawa took its name from a place and river in 
Shimotsuke, near Ashikaga and Nitta — which are geographical as 



THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHT AND FEUDALISM. 271 

well as personal names — claimed descent from the mikado Seiwa 
through the Minamoto Yoshiiye, thence through that of Nitta Yoshi- 
sada. Tokugawa Shiro, the father of Iyeyasii, lived in the village of 
Matsudaira, in Mikawa. Iyeyasii always signed the documents sent 
to foreigners, Minamoto no Iyeyasii. 

As it is the custom in Japan, as in Europe, to name families after 
places, the name of this obscure village, Matsudaira, was also taken as 
a family name by nearly all vassals, who held their lands by direct 
grant from Iyeyasii. In 1867, no fewer than fifty-four daimios were 
holding the name Matsudaira. The title of the daimio in whose capi- 
tal the writer lived in 1871, was Matsudaira Echizen no Kami. 




Crest of the Tokugawa Family. 

The Tokugawa crest was a circle inclosing three leaves of the awoi 
(a species of mallow, found in Central Japan) joined at the tips, the 
stalks touching the circle. This gilded trefoil gleamed on the Govern- 
ment buildings and property of the shogun, and on the official docu- 
ments, boats, robes, flags, and tombs. On Kaempfer's and Hildreth's 
books there is printed under it the misleading legend, " Insignia Im- 
peratoris Japonici." The trefoil flag fluttered in the breeze when 
Commodore Perry made his treaty under its shadow. To this day 
many foreigners suppose it to be the national flag of Japan. It was 
simply the family crest of the chief daimio in Japan. 

The imperial court, yearning for peace, and finding in Iyeyasii the 
person to keep the empire in order, command universal obedience, and 



272 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

satisfy the blood requirements of precedent to the office, created him 
Sei-i Tai Shogun, and it was left to Minamoto Tokugawa Iyeyasu to 
achieve the perfection of duarchy and Japanese feudalism. 

Let us see how he arranged the chess-board of the empire. There 
were his twelve children, a number of powerful princes of large landed 
possessions whom he had not conquered, but conciliated; the lesser 
daimios, who had joined him in his career ; his own retainers of every 
grade ; and a vast and miscellaneous array of petty feudal superiors, 
having grants of land and retinues of from three to one hundred fol- 
lowers. The long hereditary occupation of certain lands had given 
the holders a right which even Iyeyasu could not dispute. Out of 
such complexity and chaos, how was such a motley array of proud 
and turbulent men to be reduced to discipline and obedience ? Upon 
such a palimpsest, how was an accurate map to be drawn, or a durable 
legible record to be written? Iyeyasu had force, resources, and pa- 
tience. He was master of the arts of conciliation and of letting alone. 
He could wait for time to do its work. - He would give men the op- 
portunity of being conquered by their own good sense. 

Of Iyeyasti's twelve children, three daughters married the daimios 
of Mimasaka, Sagami, and Hida. Of his nine sons, Nobuyasii died 
before his father became shogun. Hideyasii, his second son, had been 
adopted by the taiko, but a son was born to the latter. Iyeyasu then 
gave his son the province of Echizen. Hence the Echizen clansmen, 
as relatives of the shogunal family, were ever their stanchest sup- 
porters, even until the cannon fired at Fushimi in 1868. Their crest 
was the same trefoil as that of their suzerain. When Hideyasu was 
enfeoffed with Echizen, many prominent men and heads of old families, 
supposing that he would, of course, succeed his father in office, followed 
him to his domain, and lived there. Hence in Fukui, the capital of 
Echizen, in which I lived during the year 1871, 1 became acquainted 
with the descendants of many proud families, whose ancestors had 
nursed a profound disappointment for over two centuries ; for Iyeyasu 
chose his third son, Hidetada, who had married a daughter of the 
taiko, to succeed him in the shogunate. 

Tadayashi, fifth son of Iyeyasu, whose title was Matsudaira Satsuma 
no Kami, died young. At his death five of his retainers disemboweled 
themselves, that they might follow their young master into the happy 
land. This is said to be the last instance of the ancient custom of 
jun-shi (dying with the master), such as we have noticed in a former 
chapter. During the early and mediaeval centuries occur authentic in- 



THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHY AND FEUDALISM. 273 

stances of such immolation, or the more horrible test of loyalty m the 
burial of living retainers to their necks in the earth, with only the head 
above ground, who were left to starve slowly to death. Burying a man 
alive under the foundations of a castle about to be built or in the pier 
of a new bridge, was a similar instance of lingering superstitions. 

In the Bu Kan (" Mirror of the Military Families of Japan "), a com- 
plete list of the" Yedo nobility," or clans, no record is given of lye- 
yasu's sixth and ninth male children. On his three last sons were 
bestowed the richest fiefs in the empire, excepting those of Satsuma, 
Kaga, Mutsu, Higo, and a few others — all-powerful daimios, whose 
lands Iyeyasu could not touch, and whose allegiance was only secured 
by a policy of conciliation. These three sons were invested with the 
principalities of Owari, Kii, and Mito. They founded three families, 
who were called Gosanke (the three illustrious families), and from 
these, in case of failure of heirs in the direct line, the shogun was 
to be chosen. The assessed revenue of these families were 610,500, 
555,000, and 350,000 koku of rice, respectively. They were held in 
great respect, and wielded immense influence. Their yashikis in Yedo 
were among the largest, and placed in the most conspicuous and com- 
manding sites of the city. At the tombs of the shoguns at Shiba and 
Uyeno, the bronze memorial lanterns presented in honor of the de- 
ceased ruler are pre-eminent above all others for their size and beauty. 

In the course of history down to 1868, it resulted that the first sev- 
en shoguns were descendants of Iyeyasu in the line of direct heirs.* 
From the eighth, and thence downward to the sixteenth, or next to the 
last, the shoguns were all really of the blood of Kii. The Owari fam- 
ily was never represented on the seat of Iyeyasu. It was generally 
believed, and is popularly stated, that as the first Prince of Mito had 

* SHOGUNS OF THE TOKUGAWA FAMILY. 



1. Iyeyasu 1603-1604 

2. Hidelada 1605-1622 

3. Iyemitsu 1623-1649 

4. Iy^tsuna 1650-1680 

5. Tsunayoshi 1681-1708 

6. Iy<5nobu 1709-1712 

7. Iy^tsugu 1713-1716 

8. Yoshimune 1717-1744 



9. Iyeshige 1745-1762 

10. Iyeharu 1762-1786 

11. Iyenori 1787-1837 

12. Iyeyoshi 1838-1852 

13. Iy&sada* 1853-1858 

14. Iy&nochi 1858-1866 

15. Noriyoshit 1866-1868 



* First shogun ever styled Tai-kun ("Tycoon") in a treaty document. The last three 
shoguns were styled Tai-kun by themselves and foreigners. 

t Keiki, or Hitotsiibashi, the last Sei-i Tai Shogun, still living (1S76) at Shidzuoka, in Su- 
ruga. 



274 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

married the daughter of an enemy of Iyeyasii, the Mito family could 
not furnish an heir to the shogunate. In 1867, however, as we shall 
see, Keiki, a son of Mito, but adopted into the Hitotsubashi family, be- 
came the thirty-ninth and last Sei-i Tai Shogun of Japan, the fifteenth 
and last of Tokugawa, and the fourth and last " Tycoon" of Japan. 

Next to the Gosanke ranked the Kokushiu {koku, province ; shiu, 
ruler) daimios, the powerful leaders whom Iyeyasu. defeated, or won 
over to obedience, but never tamed or conquered. He treated them 
rather as equals less fortunate in the game of war than himself. Some 
of them were direct descendants of the Kokushiu appointed by Yori- 
tomo, but most were merely successful military adventurers like Iye- 
yasii himself. Of these, Kaga was the wealthiest. He ruled over 
Kaga, Noto, and Etchiu, his chief city and castle being at Kanezawa. 
His income was 1,027,000 koku. The family name was Maeda. 
There were three cadet families ranking as Tozama, two with incomes 
of 100,000, the other of 10,000 koku. The Maeda crest consisted of 
five circles, around ten short rays representing sword-punctures. The 
Shimadzu family of Satsuma ruled over Satsuma, Ozumi, Hiuga, and 
the Liu Kiu Islands — revenue, 710,000 koku; chief city, Kagoshima. 
There was one cadet of the house of Shimadzu, with a revenue of 
27,000 koku. The crest was a white cross* within a circle. 

The Datte family ruled over the old northern division of Hondo, 
called Mutsu; capital, Sendai; revenue, 325,000 koku. There were 
three cadet families, two having 30,000 koku ; and one, Uwajima, in 
Iyo, 100,000. Their crest was two sparrows within a circle of bamboo 
and leaves. 

The Hosokawa family ruled Higo ; income 540,000 : the chief city 
is Kumamoto, in which is one of the finest castles in Japan, built by 
Kato Kiyomasa. Of three cadets whose united incomes were 81,300 
koku, two had cities in Higo, and one in Hitachi ; crest, eight disks 
around a central smaller disk. 

The Kuroda family ruled Chikuzen ; revenue, 520,000 ; chief city 
Fukuoka; crest, a black disk. One cadet in Kadzusa had 30,000 
koku ; crest, a slice of cucumber. Another in Chikuzen ; revenue, 
50,000 ; crest, Wistaria flowers. 

* This cruciform figure of the Greek pattern puzzled Xavier, who suspected 
theology in it. It has been a perpetual mare's-nest to the many would-be anti- 
quarians, who burn to immortalize themselves by unearthing Christian relics in 
Japan. It is a standard subject of dissertation by new-comers, who help to give 
a show of truth to the platitude of the ports, that "the longer one lives in 
Japan, the less he knows about it." It is simply a horse's bit-ring. 



THE PERFECTION OF DUABCHY AND FEUDALISM. 27 5 

The Asano family ruled Aki; chief city, Hiroshima; revenue, 
426,000 ; one cadet. 

The Mori family ruled Choshiu ; chief city, Hagi; revenue, 369,000. 
Of three cadet families, two were in Nagato, one was in Suwo. Their 
united incomes, 100,000 koku ; crest, a kind of water-plant. 

The above are a few specimens from the thirty-six families outside 
of the Tokugawa, and the subject (fudai) clans, who, though not of 
the shogunal family, took the name of Matsudaira. There were, in 
1862, two hundred and sixty-seven feudal families, and as many dai- 
mios of various rank, income, and landed possessions. Japan was thus 
divided into petty fragments, without real nationality, and utterly un- 
prepared to bear the shock of contact with foreigners. 

The Tozama [outside (of the shogunal family) nobility] were cadet 
families of the Kokushiu, or the smaller landed lords, who held heredi- 
tary possessions, and who sided with Iyeyasu in his rise to power. 
There were, in 1862, ninety whose assessed revenue ranged from ten 
to one hundred thousand koku each. 

The Fudai (literally, successive generations) were the generals, cap- 
tains, and retainers, both civil and military, on whom Iyeyasu be- 
stowed land as rewards. They were the direct vassals of the Toku- 
gawa family. The shogun could order any of them to exchange their 
fiefs, or could increase or curtail their revenues at will. They were to 
the shogun as the old " Six Guards " of Kioto, or household troops of 
the mediaeval mikadoate. There were, in 1862, one hundred and fif- 
teen of this class, with lands assessed at from ten to one hundred 
thousand koku. It was only the fudai, or lower-grade daimios, who 
could hold office under the Yedo bakufu, and one became regent, as 
we shall see. 

When once firmly seated on the throne, Iyeyasu found himself 
master of almost all Japan. His greatest care was to make such a 
disposal of his lands as to strike a balance of power, and to insure 
harmony among the host of territorial nobility, who already held or 
were about to be given lands. It must not be forgotten that Iyeyasu 
and his successors were, both in theory and reality, vassals of the em- 
peror, though they assumed the protection of the imperial person. 
Neither the shogun nor the daimios were acknowledged at Kioto as 
nobles of the empire. The lowest kuge was above the shogun in 
rank. The shogun could obtain his appointment only from the mi- 
kado. He was simply the most powerful among the daimios, who 
had won that pre-eminence by the sword, and who, by wealth and 



276 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

power, and a skillfully wrought plan of division of land among the 
other daimios, was able to rule for over two and a half centuries. 
Theoretically, he was primus inter pares ; in actuality, he was supreme 
over inferiors. The mikado was left with merely nominal power, de- 
pendent upon the Yedo treasury for revenue and protection, but he 
was still the fountain of honor and preferment, and, with his court, 
formed what was the lawful, and, in the last analysis, the only true 
power. There was formed at Yedo the de facto, actual administrative 
government of the empire. With the imperial family, court, and no- 
bles, Iyeyasu. had nothing to do except as vassal and guardian. He 
simply undertook to settle the position and grade the power of the 
territorial nobles, and rule them by the strong hand of military force. 
Nevertheless, real titles were bestowed only by the emperor ; and an 
honor granted, however empty of actual power, from the Son of 
Heaven in Kioto was considered immeasurably superior to any gift 
which the awe-compelling chief daimio in Yedo could bestow. The 
possession of rank and official title is the ruling passion of a Japanese. 
The richest daimios, not content with their power and revenue, spent 
vast sums of money, and used every influence at the Kioto court, to 
win titles, once, indeed, the exponent of a reality that existed, but, 
since the creation of the duarchy and the decay of the mikado's ac- 
tual power, as absurdly empty as those of the mediatized princes of 
Germany, and having no more connection with the duties implied 
than the title of Pontifex Maximus has with those of Chief Bridge- 
builder in Rome. 

The head of the proud Shimadzu family, with his vast provinces 
of Satsuma, Hiuga, Ozumi, and the Liu Kiu Islands, cared as much 
for the pompous vacuity of Shuri no daibu (" Chief of the Office of 
Ecclesiastical Carpenters ") as to be styled Lord of Satsuma, 

It is in the geographical distribution of his feudal vassals that the 
genius of Iyeyasu is seen. Wherever two powerful clans that still 
bore a grudge against the Tokugawa name were neighbors, he put be- 
tween them one of his own relatives or direct vassals, which served to 
prevent the two daimios from combining or intriguing. Besides dis- 
posing of his enemies so as to make them harmless, his object was 
to guard the capital, Kioto, so that aspiring leaders could never again 
seize the person of the mikado, as had been repeatedly done in times 
past. He thus removed a chronic element of disorder. 

Echizen commands Kioto from the north ; it was given to his eldest 
son. Omi guards it from the east; it was divided among his direct 



THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHY AND FEUDALISM- 277 

vassals, while Owari and Kii were assigned to his sons. His fudai 
vassals, or "household troops," were also ranged on the west, while 
to the south-west was Ozaka, a city in the government domain, ruled 
by his own officials. Thus the capital was completely walled in by 
friends of Tokugawa, and isolated from their enemies. 

Mori, once the lord of ten provinces, and the enemy of Tokugawa, 
was put away into the extreme south-west of Hondo, all his territories 
except Nagato and Suwo being taken from him, and given to Toku- 
gawa's direct vassals. Opposite to Nagato were Kokura and Chikuzen, 
enemies of Nagato. We shall see the significance of this when we 
treat of events leading to the Restoration (1853-1868). Shikoku 
was properly divided, so as to secure a preponderance of Tokugawa's 
most loyal vassals. Kiushiu was the weakest part of the system ; yet 
even here Satsuma was last and farthest away, and Higo, his feudal 
rival and enemy, was put next, and the most skillful disposition possi- 
ble made of the vassals and friends of Tokugawa. 

In the daimioates succession to their lands was hereditary, but not 
always to the oldest son, since the custom of adoption was very preva- 
lent, and all the rights of a son were conferred on the adopted one. 
Often the adopted child was no relation of the ruler. Sickly infants 
were often made to adopt a son, to succeed to the inheritance and keep 
up the succession. One of the most curious sights on occasions of 
important gatherings of samurai, was to see babies and little boys 
dressed in men's clothes, as " heads of families," sustaining the dignity 
of representing the family in the clan. I saw such a sight in 1871. 

One great difference between the Japanese system and that of en- 
tails in Europe lay in this, that the estate granted to each daimio 
could not be added to, or diminished, either by marriage, or by pur- 
chase, or by might, except by express permission and grant from the 
shogun, the superior of all. 

Next to the daimios ranked the hatamoto, or flag-supporters (hata, 
flag ; moto, root, under), who were vassals of the shogun — his special 
dependence in war time — having less than ten thousand koku reve- 
nue. Each had from three to thirty retainers in his train. They 
were, in most cases, of good family, descendants of noted warriors. 
They numbered eighty thousand in various parts of the empire, but 
the majority lived in Yedo. They formed the great body of military 
and civil officials. The gokenin, many of the descendants of Iyeya- 
sti's private soldiers, were inferior in wealth and rank to the hatamoto, 
but with them formed the hereditary personal following of the sho- 



278 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE 

gun, and constituted the Tokugawa clan proper, whose united reve- 
nues amounted to nearly nine million koku. The shogun, or chief 
daimio of the empire, has thus unapproachable military resources, fol- 
lowing, and revenue, and could overawe court and emperor above, 
princes and vassals beneath. 

All included within the above classes and their military retainers 
were samurai, receiving hereditary incomes of rice from the Govern- 
ment. They were privileged to wear two swords, to be exempt from 
taxes. They may be styled the military-literati of the country. To the 
great bulk of these samurai were given simply their daily portion of 
rice ; to others, rations of rice for from two to five persons. Some of 
them received small offices or positions, to which land or other sources 
of income were attached. The samurai's ideas of honor forbade him 
to do any work or engage in any business. His only duty was to keep 
perfunctory watch at the castle or his lord's house, walk in his lord's 
retinue, or on stated occasions appear in ceremonial dress. His life 
was one of idleness and ease ; and, as may be imagined, the long cent- 
uries of peace served only to develop the dangerous character of this 
large class of armed idlers. Some, indeed, were studious, or engaged 
with zeal in martial exercises, or became teachers ; but the majority 
spent their life in eating, smoking, and lounging in brothels and tea- 
houses, or led a wild life of crime in one of the great cities. When 
too deeply in debt, or having committed a crime, they left their homes 
and the service of their masters, and roamed at large. Such men were 
called ronins, or " wave-men." Usually they were villains, ready for 
any deed of blood, the reserve mercenaries from which every conspir- 
ator could recruit a squad. Occasionally, the ronin was a virtuous cit- 
izen, who had left the service of his lord for an honorable purpose. 

Ill fared it with the merchants. They were considered so low in 
the social scale that they had no right in any way to oppose or to 
remonstrate with the samurai. Among the latter were many noble 
examples of chivalry, men who were ever ready to assist the oppress- 
ed and redress their wrongs, often becoming knights-errant for the ben- 
efit of the wronged orphan and the widow, made so by a murderer's 
hand. But among the hatamoto and gokenin, especially among the 
victors of Sekigahara, cruelties and acts of violence were not only fre- 
quent and outrageous, but winked at by the Government officials. 
These blackmailers, in need of funds for a spree, would extort money 
under various pretexts, or none at all, from helpless tradesmen ; or 
their servants would sally out to a tea-house, and, having eaten or 



THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHT AND FEUDALISM. 279 

drunk their fill, would leave without paying, swaggering, drunk, and 
singing between their tipsy hiccoughs. Remonstrances from the 
landlord would be met with threats of violence, and it was no rare 
thing for them, in their drunken fury, to slash off His head. Yet 
these same non-producers and genteel loafers were intensely sensitive 
on many points of honor, and would be ready at any moment to die 
for their master. The possession of swords, and the arrogance bred 
of their superiority as a privileged class, acted continually as a temp- 
tation to brawls and murder. 

Edinburgh, in the old days of the clans, is perhaps the best illustra- 
tion of Yedo during the Tokugawa times. Certain localities in Yedo 
at night would not suffer by a comparison with the mining regions 
of California during the first opening of the diggings, when to " eat " 
a man, or to kill an Indian before breakfast, was a feather in the cap 
of men who lived with revolvers constantly in their belts. As there 
were always men in the gulches of whom it was a standing prophecy 
that they would " die with their boots on," so there was many a man 
in every city of Japan of whom it would be a nine days' wonder 
should he die with his head on. Of such men it was said that their 
death would be inujini (in a dog's place). 

Yet the merchant and farmer were not left utterly helpless. The 
Otokodate were gallant and noble fellows, not of the samurai class, 
but their bitter enemies. The swash-bucklers often met their match 
in these men, who took upon themselves to redress the grievances of 
the unarmed classes. The Otokodate were bound together into a 
sort of guild to help each other in sickness, to succor each other in 
peril, to scrupulously tell the truth and keep their promises, and never 
to be guilty of meanness or cowardice. They lived in various parts 
of Japan, though the most famous dwelt in Yedo. They were the 
champions of the people, who loved and applauded them. Many a 
bitter conflict took place between them and the overbearing samurai, 
especially the " white-hilts." The story of their gallant deeds forms 
the staple of many a popular story, read with delight by the common 
people. 

Below the samurai, or gentry, the three great classes were the farm- 
ers, artisans, and merchants. These were the common people. Be- 
neath them were the etas, who were skinners, tanners, leather-dressers, 
grave-diggers, or those who in any way handled raw -hide or buried 
animals. They were the pariahs, or social outcasts, of Japan. They 
were not allowed to enter a house, or to eat or drink, sit or cook at 



280 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the same fire with other persons. These people were said by some to 
be descendants of Corean prisoners ; by others, to have been original- 
ly the people who killed animals for feeding the imperial falcons. As 
Buddhism prohibited the eating of animals as food, the eta were left 
out of the pale of society. The hinin (not human) were the lowest 
class of beggars, the squatters on waste lands, who built huts along the 
road, and existed by soliciting alms. They also attended to the execu- 
tion of criminals and the disposal of their corpses. In general, they 
were filthy and disgusting, in their rags and dirt. 

There were thus, according to one division, eight classes of society : 
1st, the kuge, Kioto or court nobility; 2d, the daimids, Yedo or ter- 
ritorial nobles ; 3d, the buke, or hatamoto, or samurai of lower rank 
than that of daimio and priest ; 4th, landed proprietors without title, 
and farmers, called hiyakusho ; 5th, artisans, carpenters, etc., called 
shokonin; 6th, merchants, shop-keepers, and traders, called akindo ; 
7th, actors, prostitutes, genteel beggars, etc. ; 8th, tanners, skinners, 
hinin, and eta. 

Another division is that into four classes: 1st, military and official 
— samurai; 2d, agricultural — farmer; 3d, laboring — artisan; 4th, 
trading — merchant. Below the level of humanity were the eta and 
hinin. 

This was the constitution of society in Japan during the rule of 
the Tokugawa until 1868. 

Iyeyasu, in 1600 and the years following, employed an army of 
300,000 laborers in Yedo, in enlarging the castle, digging moats and 
canals, grading streets, filling marshes, and erecting buildings. His 
fleets of junks brought granite from Hiogo for the citadel and gate 
buttresses, and the river -boats the dark stone for the walls of the en- 
ceinte. His faith in the future of the city was shown in his ordering 
an immense outer ditch to be dug, which far more than completely 
encircled both castle and city, and gates and towers to be built, when 
as yet there was no wall connecting, or dwelling - houses within them, 
and city people sauntered out into -the country to see and laugh at 
them. According to tradition, the great founder declared that walls 
would be built, and the city extend far beyond them. The prediction 
was verified; for it is probable that within fifty years, as we know 
from old maps of Yedo, the land east of the river was built upon, and 
the city had spread to within two -thirds of its present proportions, 
and before the year 1700 had a population of over 500,000 souls. 
Yedo never did have, as the Hollanders guessed, and as our old text- 



THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHY AND FEUDALISM. 283 

books, in stereotyped phrase, told us, 2,500,000 souls. It is probable 
that, in 1857, when Mr. Townsend Harris, the American envoy, first 
entered it, it had as many as 1,000,000. In 18*72, by official census, 
the population of Tokid, including that of the villages around it and 
under the municipal jurisdiction, was 925,000; of the city proper, 
790,000 permanent residents, to which should be added nearly 100,000 
floating population. 

Outside of Yedo, the strength of the great unifier was spent on the 
public roads and highways, especially the Tokaido, or road skirting 
the Eastern Sea, which begins at Kioto and ends at Tokio. He ar- 
ranged fifty -three stations (shiku, relays, or post -stations), at which 
were hotels, pack-horses, baggage - coolies, and palanquin -bearers. A 
regular code of regulations to govern the movements of the daimios 
and nobles when traveling — the etiquette to be observed, the scale of 
prices to be charged — was duly arranged, and continued in force until 
1868. The roads, especially the mountain-passes, bridges, and ferries, 
were improved, and one ri (measure of two and two - fifth miles) hill- 
ocks to mark the distances set up. The regulations required that the 
main roads should be thirty -six feet wide, and be planted with pine- 
trees along their length. Cross-roads should have a width of eighteen 
feet; foot-paths, six; and of by-paths through the fields, three feet. 
At the ferry-landing on either bank of a river there was to be an open 
space of about three hundred and sixty feet. Various other regula- 
tions, pertaining to minute details of life, sumptuary laws, and feudal 
regulations, were promulgated, and gradually came into force through- 
out the empire. 

To defend the Kuanto, and strengthen his position as military ruler 
of the empire, he built or improved the nine castles of Mito, Utsuno- 
miya, Takasaki, Odawara, and five others in the Kuanto. At Sumpu, 
Ozaka, and Nijo, in Kioto, were also fine castles, and to their command 
officers were assigned. All these, and many other enterprises, required 
a vast outlay of money. The revenue of the empire amounted to near- 
ly 30,000,000 koku (165,000,000 bushels) of rice. Of this, nearly 
9,000,000 koku were retained as the revenue of the Tokugawas. The 
mines were government property ; and at this time the gold of Sado 
was discovered, which furnished Iyeyasu with the sinews of war and 
peace. This island may be said to be a mass of auriferous quartz, and 
has ever since been the natural treasure-house of Japan. 

Iyeyasu had now the opportunity to prove himself a legislator, as 
well as a warrior. He began by granting amnesty to all who would 



284 THE MIKADO'S E3IPIHE. 

accept it. He wished the past forgotten. He regretted that so much 
blood had been spilled. He entered upon a policy of conciliation that 
rapidly won to his side all the neutral and nearly all the hostile clans. 
There were some who were still too proud or sullen to submit or ac- 
cept pardon. These were left quietly alone, the great unifier waiting 
for the healing hand of time. He felt sure of his present power, and 
set himself diligently to work during the remainder of his life to con- 
solidate and strengthen that power so that it would last for centuries. 

Iyeyasu was created Sei-i Tai Shogun in 1603. Only twice during 
his life-time was peace interrupted. The persecution of the Christians 
was one instance, and the brief campaign against Hideyori, the son 
of the taiko, w T as the second. Around this young man had gather- 
ed most of the malcontents of the empire. Iyeyasu found or sought 
a ground of quarrel against him, and on the 3d of June, 1615, at- 
tacked the Castle of Ozaka, which was set on fire. A bloody battle, 
the last fought on the soil for two hundred and fifty-three years, re- 
sulted in the triumph of Iyeyasu, and the disappearance of Hideyori 
and his mother, w T ho were probably consumed in the flames. His 
tomb, however, is said to be in Kagoshima. It is most probably a 
cenotaph. 

The greatest of the Tokugawas spent the last years of his life at 
Sumpu (Shidztioka), engaged in erasing the scars of war, securing the 
triumphs of peace, perfecting his plans for fixing in stability his sys- 
tem of government, and in collecting books and manuscripts. He be- 
queathed his " Legacy," or code of laws (see Appendix), to his chief 
retainers, and advised his sons to govern in the spirit of kindness. 
He died on the 8th of March, 1616. His remains were deposited tem- 
porarily at Kuno Zan, a few miles from Sumpu, on the side of a love- 
ly mountain overlooking the sea, where the solemnity of the forest 
monarchs and the grandeur of sea and sky are blended together. 
Acting upon the dying wish of his father, Hidetada had caused to be 
erected at Nikko Zan, one hundred miles north of Yedo, a gorgeous 
shrine and mausoleum. The spot chosen was on the slope of a hill, 
on which, eight centuries before, the saintly bonze Shodo, following 
Kobo Daishi's theology, had declared the ancient Shinto deity of the 
mountain to be a manifestation of Buddha to Japan, and named him 
the Gongen of Nikko. Here Nature has glorified herself in snow- 
ranges of mighty mountains, of which glorious Nantaizan reigns king, 
his feet laved by the blue splendors of the Lake Chiuzenji, on which 
his mighty form is mirrored. Nikko means sunny splendor; and 



THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHT AND FEUDALISM. 285 

through Japanese poetry and impassioned rhetoric ever sparkle the 
glories of the morning's mirror in Chiuzenji, and the golden floods of 
light that bathe Nantaizan. The water-fall of Kiri Furi (falling mist) ; 
and of Kegon, the lake's outlet, over seven hundred feet high; the 
foaming river, grassy green in its velocity ; the colossal forests and 
inspiring scenery, made it the fit resting-place of the greatest char- 
acter in Japanese history. 

In 1617, his remains were removed from Kuno, and in solemn pag- 
eantry moved to Nikko, where the imperial envoy, vicar of the mikado, 
court nobles from Kioto, many of his old lords and captains, daimios, 
and the shogun Hidetada, awaited the arrival of the august ashes. 
The corpse was laid in its gorgeous tomb, before which the vicar of 
majesty presented the gohei, significant of the apotheosis of the mighty 
warrior, deified by the mikado as the divine vice-regent of the gods of 
heaven and earth, under the title Sho ichi i To Sho Dai Gongen, or 
" Noble of the first Degree of the first Rank, Great Light of the East, 
Great Incarnation of Buddha." During three days, a choir of Bud- 
dhist priests, in their full canonical robes, intoned the Hokke sacred 
classic ten thousand times. It was ordained that ever afterward the 
chief priest of Nikko should be a prince of the imperial blood, under 
the title of Rinnoji no miya. 

Of Hidetada, the successor of Iyeyasii, there is little to record. The 
chief business of his life seems to have been to follow out the policy 
of his father, execute his plans, consolidate the central power, establish 
good government throughout the empire, and beautify, strengthen, and 
adorn Yedo. 

Iyemitsu, the grandson of Iyeyasii, is acknowledged to have been 
the ablest ruler of all the Tokugawas after the founder, whose system 
he brought to perfection. In 1623, he went to Kioto to do homage 
to the mikado, who invested him with the title of Sei-i Tai Shogun. 
By this time many of the leaders and captains who had fought under 
lyeyasu, or those who most respected him for his prowess, were dead 
or superannuated, and had been succeeded by their sons, who, as 
though fated to follow historical precedent, failed to possess the vigor 
of their fathers, their associations being those of peace, luxury, and 
the effeminacy which follows war. 

Iyemitsu was a martinet as well as a statesman. He proposed that 
all the daimios should visit and reside in Yedo during half the year. 
Being at first treated as guests, the shogun coming out to meet them 
in the suburbs, they swore allegiance to his rules, sealing their signa- 

19 



286 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



tures, according to custom, with blood drawn from the third finger of 
the right hand. Gradually, however, these rules became more and 
more restrictive, until the honorable position degenerated into a con- 
dition tantamount to mere vassalage. Their wives and children were 
kept as hostages in Yedo, and the rendition of certain tokens of re- 
spect, almost equivalent to homage to the shogun, became imperative. 
During his rule the Christian insurrection and massacre at Shimabara 
took place. The Dutch were confined to Deshima. Yedo was vastly 

improved. Aqueducts, still 
in excellent use, were laid, to 
supply the city with water. 
To guard against the ev- 
er-threatening enemy, fire, 
watch-towers, or lookouts, 
such as are to be seen in 
every city, were erected in 
great numbers. Bells are 
hung at the top and a code 
of signals, and a prescribed 
number of taps give the lo- 
cality and progress of the 
conflagration. Mints were 
established, coins struck, 
weights and measures fixed ; 
the system of official espion- 
age, checks, and counter- 
checks established; a gen- 
eral survey of the empire 
executed ; maps of the vari- 
ous provinces and plans of 
the daimios' castles were 
made, and their pedigrees made out and published ; the councils called 
Hiojo-sho (Discussion and Decision), and Wakadoshiyori (Assembly 
of Elders), established, and Corean envoys received. 

The height of pride and ambition which Iyemitsu. had already 
reached is seen in the fact that, in a letter of reply from the bakufu 
to Corea, the shogun is referred to as Tai Kun (" Tycoon "), a title 
never conferred by the mikado on any one, nor had Iyemitsii any le- 
gal right to it. It was assumed in a sense honorary or meaningless to 
any Japanese, unless highly jealous of the mikado's sovereignty, and 




Fire-lookouts in Yedo. (Height shown by 
flown by a boy in the street.) 



kite 



TEE PERFECTION OF DUARCHY AND FEUDALISM. 287 

was intended to overawe the " barbarian " Coreans. It is best explain- 
able in the light of the Virgilian phrase, magna pars fui, or the less 
dignified " Big Indian I." 

The building of the fine temples of Toyeizan, at Uyeno, in Yedo, 
and at Nikko, were completed in Iyemitsu's time, he making five jour- 
neys thither. He died in 1649, after a prosperous rule of twenty-six 
years, and was buried with his grandfather at Nikko. 

The successors of Iyeyasu, the shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty, 
fourteen in all, were, with one exception, buried alternately in the 
cemeteries of Zozoji and Toyeizan. in the city districts of Shiba and 
Uyeno. These twin necropolises of the illustrious departed were the 
chief glories of Yedo, which was emphatically the city of the Toku- 
gawas. The remains of six of them lie in Uyeno, and six in Shiba, 
while two are at Nikko. 

During the summer of 1872, in company with an American friend 
and three of my brightest students, I made a journey to Nikko, and 
for nearly a week reveled in its inspiring scenery and solemn asso- 
ciations. During my three years' residence in Tokio, I visited these 
twin sacred places many times, spending a half -day at a visit. No 
one has described these places better than Mr. Mitford, in his " Tales 
of Old Japan." He says : " It is very difficult to do justice to their 
beauty in words. I have the memory before me of a place green in 
winter, pleasant and cool in the hottest summer, of peaceful cloisters, 
of the fragrance of incense, of the subdued chant of richly robed 
priests, and the music of bells of exquisite designs, harmonious color- 
ing, and rich gilding. The hum of the vast city outside is unheard here. 
Iyeyasu himself, in the mountains of Nikko, has no quieter resting-place 
than his descendants in the heart of the city over which he ruled." 

Passing through an immense red portal on the north side of Shiba, 
we enter the precincts of the sacred place through a long, wide ave- 
nue, lined by overarching firs, and rendered solemnly beautiful by 
their shade. A runner is usually on hand to conduct visitors to the 
gate, inside of which a priest is waiting. We enter a pebbled court- 
yard, in which are ranged over two hundred large stone lanterns. 
These are the gifts of the fudai daimios. Each lantern is inscribed 
with the name of the donor, the posthumous title of the deceased sho- 
gun, the name of the temple at Shiba, and the province in which it is 
situated, the date of the offering, and a legend, which states that it is 
reverently offered. On the following page is the reading on one, and 
will serve as a specimen : 



288 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

TO THE 

ILLUSTRIOUS TEMPLE OF LEARNING* 

[Posthumous title of the sixth Shogun Iyenobul 

THIS STONE LANTERN, 

SET UP BEFORE THE TOMB AT THE TEMPLE OF ZOZOJI, 

IN MUSASHI, 

IS REVERENTLY OFFERED 

BY THE 

RULING DAIMIO, 

NOBLE OF THE FIFTH RANK, 

MASUYAMA FUJIWARA MASATO, 

LORD OF TSUSHIMA, 

IN THE SECOND YEAR OF THE PERIOD OF STRICT VIRTUE, 

IN THE CYCLE OF THE WATER DRAGON 

[mi]. 

Passing through a handsomely gilt and carved gate-way, we enter 
another court -yard, the sides of which are gorgeously adorned. 
Within the area are bronze lanterns, the gift of the Kokushiu daimios. 
The six very large gilded lanterns standing by themselves are from 
the Go San Ke, the three princely families, in which the succession to 
the office of shogun was vested. To the left is a monolith lavatory ; 
and to the right is a splendid building, used as a depository of sacred 
utensils, such as bells, gongs, lanterns, etc., used only on matsuri, or 
festival days. Passing through another handsome gate which eclipses 
the last in richness of design, we enter a roofed gallery somewhat like 
a series of cloisters. In front is the shrine, a magnificent specimen of 
native architecture. 

Sitting down upon the lacquered steps, we remove our shoes, while 
the shaven bonze swings open the gilt doors, and reveals a transept 
and nave, laid with finest white matting, and ceiled in squares wrought 
with elaborate art. The walls of the transept are arabesqued, and the 
panels carved with birds and flowers — the fauna of Japan, both real 
and mythical — and the various objects in Japanese sacred and legend- 
ary art. In each panel the subjects are different, and richly repay 

* The Mmio, or posthumous titles of thirteen Tokugawa shoguns, are : 1, Great 
Light of the East; 2, Chief Virtue; 3, Illustrious Enterprise; 4, Strict Holding; 
5, Constant System ; 6, Literary Brightness ; 7, Upholder of the Plan ; 8, Up- 
holder of Virtue ; 9, Profound Faith ; 10, Steady Brightness ; 11, Learned Rever- 
ence ; 12, Learned Carefulness ; 13, Rigid Virtue. 



THE PERFECTION OF DUARCHY AND FEUDALISM. 289 

study. The glory of motion, the passionate life of the corolla, and 
the perfection of nature's colors have been here reproduced in inani- 
mate wood by the artist. At the extremity of the nave is a short 
flight of steps. Two massive gilt doors swing asunder at the touch of 
priestly hands, and across the threshold we behold an apocalypse of 
splendor. Behind the sacred offertories, on carved and lacquered 
tables, are three reliquaries rising to the ceiling, and by their outer 
covering simulating masses of solid gold. Inside are treasured the 
tablets and posthumous titles of the august deceased. Descending 
from this sanctum into the transept again, we examine the canonical 
rolls, bell, book, and candles, drums and musical instruments, with 
which the Buddhist rites are celebrated and the liturgies read. Don- 
ning our shoes, we pass up a stone court fragrant with blossoming 
flowers, and shaded with rare and costly trees of every variety, form, 
and height, but overshadowed by the towering firs. We ascend a 
flight of steps, and are in another pebbled and stone-laid court, in 
which stands a smaller building, called a kaiden, formerly used by the 
living shogun as a place of meditation and prayer when making his 
annual visit to the tombs of his forefathers. Beyond it is still another 
flight of stone steps, and in the inclosure is a plain monumental urn, 
"This is the simple ending to so much magnificence" — the solemn 
application of the gorgeous sermon. 

The visitor, on entering the cemetery by the small gate to the right 
of the temple, and a few feet distant from the great belfry, will see 
three tombs side by side. The first to the left is that of Iyenobu, 
the sixth of the line, who ruled in 1709-1713. The urn and gates of 
the tomb are of bronze. The tomb in the centre is that of Iyeyoshi, 
the twelfth, who ruled 1838-1854. The third, to the right, is that of 
Iyemochi, the fourteenth shogun, who ruled 1858-1866, and was the 
last of his line who died in power. 

From the tomb of Iyemochi, facing the east and looking to the 
left, we may see the tombs of Iyetsugu (1713-1716), the seventh, and 
of Iyeshige (1745-1762), the ninth, shogun. Descending the steps 
and reaching the next stone platform, we may, by looking down to 
the left, see the tombs of a shogun's wife and two of his children. 
The court -yards and shrines leading to the tombs of Iyetsugu and 
Iyeshige are fully as handsome as the others. Hidetada (1606- 
1623), the second prince of the line, is buried a few hundred yards 
south of the other tombs. The place is easily found. Passing down 
the main avenue, and turning to the right, we have a walk of a fur- 



290 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

long or two up a hill, on the top of which, surrounded by camellia- 
trees, and within a heavy stone palisade, is a handsome octagon edi- 
fice of the same material. A mausoleum of gold lacquer rests up- 
right on a pedestal. The tomb, a very costly one, is in a state of 
perfect preservation. On one side of the path is a curiously carved 
stone, representing Buddha" on his death-bed. The great temple of 
Zozoji belonged to the Jodo sect, within whose pale the Tokugawas 
lived and died.* 

* This splendid temple and belfry was reduced to ashes on the night of Decem- 
ber 31st, 1874, by a fanatic incendiary. It had been sequestrated by the Imperial 
Government, and converted into a Shinto rniya. On a perfectly calm midnight, 
during a heavy fall of snow, the sparks and the flakes mingled together with in- 
describable effect. The new year was ushered in by a perpendicular flood of 
dazzling green flame poured up to an immense height. The background of tall 
cryptomeria trees heightened the grandeur of the fiery picture. As the volatil- 
ized gases of the various metals in the impure copper sheathing of the roof and 
sides glowed and sparkled, and streaked the iridescent mass of flame, it afforded 
a spectacle only to be likened to a near observation of the sun, or a view through 
a colossal spectroscope. The great bell, whose casting had been superintended 
by Iyemitsu, and by him presented to the temple, had for two hundred years 
been the solemn monitor, inviting the people to their devotions. Its liquid 
notes could be heard, it is said, at Odawara. On the night of the fire the old 
bell-ringer leaped to his post, and, in place of the usual solemn monotone, gave 
the double stroke of alarm, until the heat had changed one side of the bell to 
white, the note deepening in tone, until, in red heat, the ponderous link softened 
and bent, dropping its burden to the earth. It is to be greatly regretted that 
the once sacred grounds of Shiba groves are now desecrated and common. " Sic 
transit gloria Tokugawarum." 

The family of Tokugawa, the city of Yedo, and the institutions of peaceful 
feudalism took their rise and had their fall together. "When the last shogun re- 
signed in 1868, Yedo became the Tokio, or national capital, and with Old Yedo, 
feudalism and Old Japan passed away. The desperate efforts afterward made in 
1874 at Saga, in Hizen (p. 575), in 1876 at Kumamoto, in Higo (p. 619), and in Sat- 
suma in 1877 (p. 621), to overthrow the mikado's government, were but the ex- 
piring throes of feudalism. Old Japan has forever passed away, to live only in 
art, drama, and literature. The student will find the following monographs val- 
uable and interesting: "The Streets and Street Names of Yedo," in "Transac- 
tions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," 1873. " The Tokio Guide," and " Map of 
Tokio, with Notes Historical and Explanatory ;" Yokohama, 1872. " The Castle 
of Yedo," by T. R. H. M'Clatchie, a valuable paper read before the Asiatic So- 
ciety, Dec. 22d, 1877, and printed in the Japan Mail for Jan. 12th, 1878, and in the 
society's "Transactions" for 1878. Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan." "Chiu- 
shingura ; or, The Loyal League," a Japanese Romance (of the 47 Ronins), enrich- 
ed with native illustrations, notes, and appendix; New York, 1876. "Japanese 
Heraldry," by T. R. H. M'Clatchie, in Asiatic Society's " Transactions" for 1877. 
The best glimpse into every-day humble life is afforded in "Our Neighborhood; 
or, Sketches in the Suburbs of Yedo," by T. A. P. (T. A. Purcell, M.D.); Yoko- 
hama, 1874. In Alcock's " Three Years in Japan" (New York, Harper & Broth- 
ers) and Hildredth's " Japan " are also some good pictures as seen by foreign eyes. 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 291 



XXVIII. 

THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN* 

It is the popular impression in the United States and in Europe 
that the immediate cause of the fall of the shogun's Government, the 
restoration of the mikado to supreme power, and the abolition of the 
dual and feudal systems was the presence of foreigners on the soil of 
Japan. No one who has lived in Dai Nippon, and made himself fa- 
miliar with the currents of thought among the natives, or who has 
studied the history of the country, can share this opinion. The for- 
eigners and their ideas were the occasion, not the cause, of the de- 
struction of the dual system of government, which would certainly 
have resulted from the operation of causes already at work before the 
foreigners arrived. Their presence served merely to hasten what was 
already inevitable. 

I purpose in this chapter to expose the true causes of the recent 
marvelous changes in Japan. These comprise a three-fold political 
revolution within, a profound alteration in the national policy toward 
foreigners, and the inauguration of social reforms which lead us to 
hope that Japan has rejected the Asiatic, and adopted the European, 
ideal of civilization. I shall attempt to prove that these causes oper- 
ated mainly from within, not from without ; from impulse, not from 
impact ; and that they were largely intellectual. 

The history of Japan, as manifested in the current of events since 
the advent of Commodore Perry, has its sources in a number of dis- 
tinct movements, some logically connected, others totally distinct from 
the rest. These were intended to effect: 1. The overthrow of the 
shogun, and his reduction to his proper level as a vassal ; 2. The res- 
toration of the true emperor to supreme power; 3. The abolition of 
the feudal system and a return to the ancient imperial regime; 4. 
The abolition of Buddhism, and the establishment of pure Shinto as 

* Reprinted and enlarged from the North American Review of April, 1875. 



292 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the national faith and the engine of government. These four move- 
ments were historically and logically connected. The fifth was the 
expulsion of the foreign "barbarians," and the dictatorial isolation 
of Japan from the rest of the world; the sixth, the abandonment of 
this design, the adoption of Western civilization, and the entrance of 
Japan into the comity of nations. The origin of the first and second 
movements must be referred to a time distant from the present by a 
century and a half ; the third and fourth, to a period within the past 
century ; the fifth and sixth, to an impulse developed mainly within 
the memory of young men now living. 

There existed, long before the advent of Perry, definite conceptions 
of the objects to be accomplished. These lay in the minds of earnest 
thinkers, to whom life under the dual system was a perpetual winter 
of discontent, like snow upon the hills. In due season the spring 
would have come that was to make the flood. The presence of Perry 
in the Bay of Yedo was like an untimely thaw, or a hot south-wind in 
February. The snow melted, the streams gathered. Like houses built 
upon the sand, the shogunate and the feudal system were swept away. 
They were already too rotten and worm-eaten to have the great fall 
which the simile might suggest. The mikado and the ancient ark of 
state floated into power. Buddhism stood as upon a rock, damaged, 
but firm. The foreigner, moored to the pile-driven foundations of his 
treaties, held his own more firmly than before. The flood in full mo- 
mentum was swollen by a new stream and deflected into a new chan- 
nel. Abandoning the attempt to defy the gravitation of events, to 
run up the hill of a past forever sloping backward into the impossi- 
ble, the flood found surcease with the rivers of nations that make the 
ocean of human solidarity. 

The chief motors of these movements were intellectual. Neither 
the impact of foreign cannon-balls at Kagoshima or Shimonoseki (see 
Appendix), nor the heavy and unjust indemnities demanded from the 
Japanese, wrought of themselves the events of the last ten years, as 
foreigners so complacently believe. An English writer resident in 
Japan concludes his translation of the " Legacy of Iyeyasu " by refer- 
ring to it as the " constitution under which this country [Japan] was 
governed until the time within the recollection of all, when it gave 
way to the irresistible momentum of a higher civilization." The 
translator evidently means that the fall of the dual form of govern- 
ment and the feudal system was the direct result of contact with the 
higher civilization of Europe and America. English writers on Japan 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 293 

seem to imply that the bombardment of Kagoshima was the para- 
mount cause that impelled Japan to adopt the foreign civilization. 

Much, also, has been said and written in praise of Japan for her 
abolition of the feudal system by a " stroke of the pen," and thus 
"achieving in one day what it required Europe centuries to accom- 
plish." An outsider, whose knowledge of Dai Nippon is derived from 
our old text-books and cyclopedias, or from non-resident book-makers, 
may be so far dazed as to imagine the Japanese demi-gods in state- 
craft, even as the American newspapers make them all princes. To 
the writer, who has lived in a daimio's capital before, during, and 
after the abolition of feudalism, the comparison suggests the reason 
why the Irish recruit cut off the leg instead of the head of his enemy. 
Long before its abolition, Japanese feudalism was ready for its grave. 
The overthrow of the shogun left it a headless trunk. To cut off its 
legs and bury it was easy, and in reality this was what the mikado's 
Government did, as I shall show. 

As it would be vain to attempt to comprehend our own late civil 
war by beginning at Sumter, or even with the Compromise measures 
of 1851 ; so one will be misled who, in attempting to understand the 
Japan of to-day, looks only at events since Perry's time. The roots 
of the momentous growth of 1868 are to be found within the past 
centuries. 

Yoritomo's acts were in reality the culmination of a long series of 
usurpations, begun by the Taira. Under the plea of military necessity, 
he had become an arch-usurper. In the period 1184-1199 a.d. began 
that dual system of government which has been the political puzzle 
of the world ; which neither Kaempfer, nor the Deshima Hollanders, 
nor the Portuguese Jesuits seem ever to have fully understood ; which 
has filled our cyclopedias and school-books with the misleading non- 
sense about " two emperors," one " spiritual " and the other " secular ;" 
which led the astute Perry and his successors to make treaties with an 
underling ; which gave rise to a vast mass of what is now very amus- 
ing reading, embracing much prophecy, fiction, and lamentations, in 
the Diplomatic Correspondence from Japan ; and which keeps alive 
that venerable solecism heard among a few Rip Yan Winkles in Ja- 
pan, who talk, both in Japanese and English, about the " return of the 
tycoon to power." There never was but one emperor in Japan ; the 
shogun was a military usurper, and the bombastic title " tycoon " a 
diplomatic fraud. 

We have seen how the policy of Yoritomo was continued by the 



294 THE MIKADO'S EMPIBE: 

Hojo, the Ashikaga, and the Tokugawas, who consummated the per- 
manent separation of the throne and the camp. The custom of the 
shoguns going to Kioto to do the mikado homage fell into desuetude 
after the visit of Iyemitsu. The iron-handed rule of the great com- 
mander at Yedo was felt all over the empire, and after centuries of 
war it had perfect peace. Learning nourished, the arts prospered. 
So perfect was the political machinery of the bakufu that the power 
of the mikado seemed but a shadow, though in reality it was vastly 
greater than foreigners ever imagined. 

The dwellings of the two rulers at Yedo and Kioto, of the domi- 
neering general and the overawed emperor, were typical of their posi- 
tions. The mikado dwelt, unguarded, in a mansion surrounded by 
gardens inclosed within a plaster wall, in a city which was the chosen 
centre of nobles of simple life, highest rank, and purest blood, men of 
letters, students, and priests, and noted for its classic history and 
sacred associations, monasteries, gardens, and people of courtly man- 
ners and gentle life. The shogun lived in a fortified and garrisoned 
castle, overlooking an upstart city full of arsenals, vassal princes, and 
military retainers. The feelings of the people found truest expression 
in the maxim, " The shogun all men fear ; the mikado all men love." 

The successors of Iyeyasii, carrying out his policy, having extermi- 
nated the " corrupt sect " (Christianity), swept all foreigners out of 
the empire, and bolting its sea-barred gates, proceeded to devise and 
execute measures to eliminate all disturbing causes, and fix in eternal 
stability the peaceful conditions which were the fruit of the toils of 
his arduous life. They deliberately attempted to prevent Chronos 
from devouring his children. 

According to their scheme, the intellect of the nation was to be 
bounded by the Great Wall of the Chinese classics, while to the hie- 
rarchy of Buddhism — one of the most potent engines ever devised for 
crushing and keeping crushed the intellect of the Asiatic masses — was 
given the ample encouragement of government example and patron- 
age. An embargo was laid upon all foreign ideas. Edicts commanded 
the destruction of all boats built upon a foreign model, and forbade 
the building of vessels of any size or shape superior to that of a junk 
Death was the penalty of believing in Christianity, of traveling abroad, 
of studying foreign languages, of introducing foreign customs. Be- 
fore the august train of the shogun men must seal their upper win- 
dows, and bow their faces to the earth. Even to his tea-jars and cook- 
ing-pots the populace must do obeisance with face in the dust. To 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 295 

study ancient history, which might expose the origin of the shogun- 
ate, was forbidden to the vulgar, and discouraged among the higher. 
A rigid censorship dried the life-blood of many a master spirit, while 
the manufacture and concoction of false and garbled histories which 
extolled the reigning dynasty, or glorified the dual system of govern- 
ment as the best and only one for Japan, were encouraged. There 
were not wanting poets, fawning flatterers, and even historians, who in 
their effusions styled the august usurper the O-gimi (Chinese, tai-kun, 
or "tycoon"), a term meaning great prince, or exalted ruler, and 
properly applied only to the mikado. The blunders, cruelties, and op- 
pressions of the Tokugawa rulers were, in popular fiction and drama, 
removed from the present, and depicted in plots laid in the time of 
the Ashikagas, and the true names changed. One of the most perfect 
systems of espionage and repression ever devised was elaborated to 
fetter all men in helpless subjection to the great usurper. An incred- 
ibly large army of spies was kept in the pay of the Government. 
Within such a hedge, the Government itself being a colossal fraud, 
rapidly grew and flourished public and private habits of lying, and de- 
ceit in all its forms, until the love of a lie apparently for its own sake 
became a national habit. When foreigners arrived in the Land of the 
Gods during the decade following Perry's arrival, they concluded that 
the lying which was everywhere persistently carried on in the Govern- 
ment and by private persons with such marvelous facility and unique 
originality was a primal characteristic of Japanese human nature. The 
necessity of hoodwinking the prying eyes of the foreigners, lest they 
should discover the fountain of authority, and the true relation of the 
shogun, gave rise to the use of official deception that seemed as varie- 
gated as a kaleidoscope and as regular as the laws of nature. The ma- 
jority of the daimios who had received lands and titles from the sho- 
gun believed their allegiance to be forever due to him, instead of to 
the mikado, a belief stigmatized as rank treason by the students of 
history. As for the common people, the great mass of them forgot, 
or never knew, that the emperor had ever held power or governed his 
people ; and being officially taught to believe him to be a divine per- 
sonage, supposed he had lived thus from time immemorial. Knowing 
only of the troubled war times before the "great and good" Tokuga- 
was, they believed devoutly in the infallibility, paternal benevolence, 
and divine right of the Yedo rulers. 

The line of shoguns, founded by Iyeyasii, was the last that held, or 
ever will hold, the military power in Japan. To them the Japanese 



296 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

people owe the blessing of nearly two hundred and seventy years of 
peace. Under their firm rule the dual form of government seemed 
fixed on a basis unchangeable, and the feudal system in eternal stabili- 
ty. There did not exist, nor was it possible there should arise, causes 
such as undermined the feudalism of Europe. The Church, the Em- 
pire, free cities, industrialism — these were all absent. The eight classes 
of the people were kept contented and happy. A fertile soil and ge- 
nial clime gave food in unstinted profusion, and thus was removed a 
cause which is a chronic source of insurrection in portions of China. 
As there was no commerce, there was no vast wealth to be accumu- 
lated, nor could the mind of the merchant expand to a limit danger- 
ous to despotism by fertilizing contact w T ith foreigners. All learning 
and education, properly so called, were confined to the samurai, to 
whom also belonged the sword and privilege. The perfection of the 
governmental machinery at Yedo kept, as was the design, the daimios 
poor and at jealous variance with each other, and rendered it impossi- 
ble for them to combine their power. No two of them ever were al- 
lowed to meet in private or to visit each other without spies. The 
vast army of eighty thousand retainers of the Tokugawas, backed by 
the following of some of the richest clans, such as Owari, Kii, Mito, 
and Echizen (see Appendix), who were near relatives of the shogunal 
family, together with the vast resources in income and accumulation, 
made it appear, as many believed, that the overthrow of the Tokuga- 
was, or the bakufu, or the feudal system, was a moral impossibility. 

Yet all these fell to ruin in the space of a few months ! The baku- 
fu is now a shadow of the past. The Tokugawas, once princes and 
the gentry of the land, whose hands never touched other tools than 
pen and sword, now live in obscurity or poverty, and by thousands 
keep soul and body together by picking tea, making paper, or digging 
the mud of rice-fields they once owned, like the laborers they once 
despised. Their ancestral tombs at Kuno, Shiba, Uyeno, and Nikko, 
once the most sacred and magnificently adorned of Japanese places 
of honor, are now dilapidating in unarrested neglect, dishonor, and de- 
cay. The feudal system, at the touch of a few daring parvenus, crum- 
bled to dust like the long undisturbed tenants of catacombs when sud- 
denly moved or exposed to the light of day. Two hundred and fifty 
princes, resigning lands, retainers, and incomes, retired to private life in 
Tokio at the bidding of their former servants, acting in the. name of 
the mikado. They are now quietly waiting to die. They are the 
" dead facts stranded on the shores of the oblivious years." 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 297 

What were the causes of these three distinct results? When be- 
gan the first gathering of the waters which burst into flood in 1868, 
sweeping away the landmarks of centuries, floating the old ship of 
state into power, impelling it, manned with new men and new ma- 
chinery, into the stream of modern thought, as though Noah's ark had 
been equipped with engines, steam, and propellers ? To understand 
the movement, we must know the currents of thought, and the men 
who produced the ideas. 

There were formerly many classes of people in Japan, but only 
three of these were students and thinkers. The first comprised the 
court nobles, the literati of Kioto ; the second, the priests, who brought 
into existence that mass of Japanese Buddhistic literature, and origi- 
nated and developed those phases of the India cultus which have 
made Japanese Buddhism a distinct product of thought and life 
among the manifold developments of the once most widely professed 
religion in the world. This intellectual activity and ecclesiastical 
growth culminated in the sixteenth century. Since that time Japa- 
nese thought has been led by the samurai, among whom we may in- 
clude the priests of Shinto. The modern secular intellectual activity 
of Japan attained its highest point during the latter part of the last 
and the first quarter of the present century. Even as far back as the 
seventeenth century, the students of ancient history began to under^ 
stand clearly the true nature of the duarchy, and to see that the sho- 
gunate could exist only while the people were kept in ignorance. 
From that time Buddhism began to lose its hold on the intellect of 
the samurai and lay educated classes. The revival of Chinese learn- 
ing, especially the Confucian and Mencian politico - ethics, followed. 
Buddhism was almost completely supplanted as a moral force. The 
invasion of Corea was one of the causes tributary to this result, which 
was greatly stimulated by the presence of a number of refugee schol- 
ars, who had fled from China on the overthrow of the Ming dynasty. 
The secondary influence of the fall of Peking and the accession of 
the Tartars became a parallel to the fall of Constantinople and the 
dispersion of the Greek scholars through Europe in the thirteenth 
century. The relation between the sovereign (mikado) and vassal 
(shogun) had become so nearly mythical, that most Japanese fathers 
could not satisfy the innocent and eager questions of their children 
as to who was sovereign of Japan. The study of the Confucian moral 
scheme of " The Five Relations " (i. e., sovereign and minister, parent 
and child, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, and between 



298 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

friends), in which the first and great requirement is the obedience of 
the vassal to his lord, aroused an incoercible desire among the samurai 
to restore and define that relation so long obscured. This spirit in- 
creased with every blunder of the bakufu; and when the revolution 
opened, " the war-cry that led the imperial party to victory was Daigi 
meibun, or the 'King and the subject;' whereby it was understood 
that the distinction between them must be restored, and the shogun 
should be reduced to the proper relation of subject or servant to his 
sovereign."* 

The province of Mito was especially noted for the number, ability, 
and activity of its scholars. In it dwelt the learned Chinese refugees 
as guests of the daimio. The classic, which has had so powerful an 
influence in forming the public opinion which now upholds the mi- 
kado's throne, is the product of the native scholars, who submitted 
their text for correction to the Chinese scholars. The second Prince 
of Mito, who was born 1622, and died 1700, is to be considered, as 
was first pointed out by Mr. Ernest Satow, as " the real author of the 
movement which culminated in the revolution of 1868." Assembling 
around him a host of scholars from all parts of Japan, he began the 
composition of the Dai Nihon Shi, or " History of Japan." It is writ- 
ten in the purest Chinese, which is to Japan what Latin is to learning 
in Europe, and fills two hundred and forty-three volumes, or matter 
about equal to Mr. Bancroft's "History of the United States." It 
was finished in 17 15, and immediately became a classic. Though dil- 
igently studied, it remained in manuscript, copied from hand to hand 
by eager students, until 1851, when the wide demand for it induced 
its publication in print. The tendency of this book, as of most of the 
many publications of Mito,f was to direct the minds of the people to 
the mikado as the true and only source of authority, and to point out 
the historical fact that the shogun was a military usurper. Mito, be- 
ing a near relative of the house of Tokugawa, was allowed greater lib- 
erty in stating his views than could have been granted to any other 
person. The work begun by Mito was followed up by the famous 
scholar, Rai Sanyo, who in 1827, after twenty years of continuous la- 
bor, completed his Nihon Guai Shi ("External History of Japan"), in 
which he gives the history of each of the military families, Taira, Mi- 
namoto, Ho jo, Ashikaga, etc., who held the governing power from the 



* Arinori Mori: Introduction to "Education in Japan," p. 26. 
t See article Japan, Literature of, in the "American Cyclopaedia." 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 299 

period of the decadence of the mikados. This work had to pass the 
ordeal of the censorate at Yedo, and some of the volumes were re- 
peatedly purged by the censors before they were allowed to be pub- 
lished. The unmistakable animus of this great book is to show that 
the mikado is the only true ruler, in whom is the fountain of power, 
and to whom the allegiance of every Japanese is due, and that even 
the Tokugawas were not free from the guilt of usurpation. 

The long peace of two centuries gave earnest patriots time to think. 
Though the great body of the people, both the governing and the gov- 
erned classes, enervated by prolonged prosperity and absence of dan- 
ger, cared for none of these things, the serious students burned to see 
the mikado again restored to his ancient authority. This motive alone 
would have caused revolution in due time. They felt that Japan had 
retrograded, that the military arts had sunk into neglect, that the war 
spirit slumbered. Yet on all sides the " greedy foreigners " were ey- 
ing the Holy Country. Already the ocean, once a wall, was a high- 
way for wheeled vessels. The settlement of California and the Pacif- 
ic coast made the restless Americans their neighbors on the east, with 
only a wide steam ferry between. American whalers cruised in Japa- 
nese waters, and hunted whales in sight of the native coasters. Amer- 
ican ships repeatedly visited their harbors to restore a very few of the 
human waifs which for centuries in unintermitted stream had drifted 
up the Kuro Shiwo and across the Pacific, giving to America wrecks 
and spoils, her tribes men, her tongues words, and perhaps the civiliza- 
tion which in Peru and Mexico awoke the wonder and tempted the 
cupidity of the Spanish marauders (see Appendix). Defying all prec- 
edent, and trampling on Japanese pride and isolation, the American 
captains refused to do as the Hollanders, and go to Nagasaki, and ap- 
peared even in the Bay of Yedo. The long scarfs of coal-smoke were 
becoming daily matters of familiar ugliness and prognostics of doom. 
The steam-whistle heard by the junk sailors — as potent as the rams' 
horns of old — had already thrown down their walls of exclusion. 
The "black ships" of the "barbarians" passing Matsumae in one 
year numbered eighty-six. Russia, on the north, was descending upon 
Saghalin ; the English, French, Dutch, and Americans were pressing 
their claims for trade and commerce. The bakufu was idle, making 
few or no preparations to resist the fierce barbarians. Far-sighted 
men saw that, in presence of foreigners, a collision between the two 
centres of government, Yedo and Kioto, would be immediate as it was 
inevitable. When it should come, in the nature of the case, the sho- 



300 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

gunate must fall. The samurai would adhere to the mikado's side, 
and the destruction of the feudal system would follow as a logical ne- 
cessity. It was the time of luxury, carousal, and the stupor of licen- 
tious carnival with most of the daimios, but with others of gloomy 
forebodings. 

Another current of thought was flowing in the direction of a re- 
stored mikadoate. It may be called the revival of the study of pure 
Shinto, and, in examining the causes of the recent revolution, can not 
be overlooked. The introduction of Buddhism and Chinese philoso- 
phy greatly modified or "corrupted" the ancient faith. A school of 
modern writers has attempted to purge modern Shinto, and present 
it in its original form. 

According to this religion, Japan is pre-eminently the Land of the 
Gods, and the mikado is their divine representative and vicegerent. 
Hence the duty of all Japanese implicitly to obey him. During the 
long reign of the shoguns, and of Buddhism, which they favored and 
professed, few, indeed, knew what pure Shinto was. Its Bible is the 
Jfojiki, compiled a.d. 712. Several other works, such as the JVihongi, 
Manyoshiu, are nearly as old and as valuable in the eyes of Shinto 
scholars as the Kojiki. They are written in ancient Japanese, and can 
be read only by special students of the archaic form of the language. 
The developments of a taste for the study of ancient native literature 
and for that of history were nearly synchronous. The neglect of 
pure Japanese learning for that of Chinese had been almost universal, 
until Keichiu, Kada, and other scholars revived its critical study. The 
bakufu discouraged all such investigation, while the mikado and court 
at Kioto lent it all their aid, both moral and, as it is said, pecuniary. 
Mabuchi (1697-1769), Motoori (1730-1801), and Hirata (1776-1843), 
each successively the pupil of the other, are the greatest lights of pure 
Shinto ; and their writings, which are devoted to cosmogony, ancient 
history, and language, the true position of the mikado and the Shinto 
cultus, exerted a lively influence at Kioto, in Mito, in Echizen, Satsuma, 
and in many other provinces, where a political party was already form- 
ing, with the intention of accomplishing the abolition of the bakufu 
and a return to the Osei era. The necessary result of the study of 
Shinto was an increase of reverence for the mikado. Buddhism, Chi- 
nese influence, Confucianism, despotism, usurpation, and the bakufu 
were, in the eyes of a Shintoist, all one and the same. Shinto, the 
ancient true religion, all which a patriot could desire, good govern- 
ment, national purity, the Golden Age, and a life best explained by the 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 301 

conception of the " millennium " among Christians, were synonymous 
with the mikado and his return to power. The argumencs of the 
Shintoists helped to swell the tide that came to its flood at Fushimi. 
Throughout and after the war of 1868-1870, there were no more bit- 
ter partisans who urged to the last extremes of logic and severity the 
issues of the war and the " reformation." It was the study of the lit- 
erature produced by the Shinto scholars and the historical writers that 
formed the public opinion that finally overthrew the shogunate, the 
bakufu, and feudalism. 

Long before foreigners arrived, the seeds of revolution were above 
the soil. The old Prince of Mito, a worthy descendant of his illustri- 
ous ancestor, tired of preaching Shinto and of persuading the shogun 
to hand over his authority to the mikado, resolved, in 1840, to take 
up arms and to try the wager of battle. To provide the sinews of 
war, he seized the Buddhist monasteries, and melted down their enor- 
mous bronze bells and cast them into cannon. By prompt measures 
the bakufu suppressed his preparations for war, and imprisoned him 
for twelve years, releasing him only in the excitement consequent upon 
the arrival of Perry. 

Meanwhile Satsuma, Choshiu, and other Southern clans were mak- 
ing extensive military preparations, not merely to be in readiness to 
drive out the possible foreign invaders, but, as we now know, and as 
events proved, to reduce the shogun to his proper level as one of many 
of the mikado's vassals. The ancestors of these most powerful clans 
had of old held equal rank and power with Iyeyasii, until the fortunes 
of war turned against them. They had been overcome by force, or 
had sullenly surrendered in face of overwhelming odds. Their adhe. 
sion to the Tokugawas was but nominal, and only the strong pressure 
of superior power was able to wring from them a haughty semblance 
of obedience. They chafed perpetually under the rule of one who 
was in reality a vassal like themselves. On more than one occasion 
they openly defied and ignored the bakufu's orders ; and the purpose, 
scarcely kept secret, of the Satsuma and Choshiu clans was to destroy 
the shogunate, and acknowledge no authority but that of the mikado. 

From the Southern clans rose, finally, the voice in council, the 
secret plot, the coup d'etat, and the arms in the field that wrought 
the purpose for which Mito labored. Yet they would never have been 
successful, had not a public sentiment existed to support them, which 
the historical writers had already created by their writings. The 
scholars could never have gratified their heart's wish, had not the 

20 



302 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

sword and pen, brain and hand — both equally mighty — helped each 
other. 

Notably pre-eminent among the Southern daimios, in personal char- 
acteristics, abilities, energy, and far-sightedness, was the Prince of 
Satsuma. Next to Kaga, he was the wealthiest of all the daimios 
(see Appendix). Had he lived, he would doubtless have led the revo- 
lutionary movement of 1868. Besides giving encouragement to all 
students of the ancient literature and history, he was most active in 
developing the material resources of his province, and in perfecting 
the military organization, so that, when the time should be ripe for 
the onslaught on the bakufu, he might have ready for the mikado the 
military provision to make his government a complete success. To 
carry out his plans, he encouraged the study of the Dutch and English 
languages, and thus learned the modern art of war and scientific im- 
provement. He established cannon - foundries and mills on foreign 
principles. He saw that something more was needed. Young men 
must visit foreign countries, and there acquire the theory and practice 
of the arts of war and peace. The laws of the country forbade any 
subject to leave it, and the bakufu was ever on the alert to catch run- 
aways. Later on, however, by a clever artifice, a number of the 
brightest young men, about twenty-seven in number, got away in one 
vessel to Europe, and, despite the surveillance of the Yedo officials, 
others followed to England and the United States. Among these 
young men were some who are now high officials of the Japanese 
Government. 

The renown of this prince extended all over the empire, and num- 
bers of young men from all parts of the country flocked to be hi* 
pupils or students. Kagoshima, his capital, became a centre of busy 
manual industry and intellectual activity. Keeping pace with the in- 
tense energy of mind and hand was the growing sentiment that the 
days of the bakufu were numbered, that its fall was certain, and that 
the only fountain of authority was the mikado. The Satsuma samurai 
and students all looked to the prince as the man for the coming crisis, 
when, to the inexpressible grief of all, he sickened and died, in 1858. 
He was succeeded in actual power by Shimadzu Saburo, his younger 
brother. No master ever left more worthy pupils ; and those most trust- 
ed and trusting, among many others, were Saigo, Okubo, and Katsu. The 
mention of these names calls up to a native the most stirring memories 
of the war. Saigo became the leader of the imperial army. Okubo, 
the implacable enemy of the bakufu, was the master-spirit in council, 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 303 

and the power behind the throne which urged the movement to its 
logical consequences. At this moment, the annihilator of the Saga 
rebellion, crowned with diplomatic laurels, and the conqueror of a 
peace at Peking, he stands leader of the Cabinet, and the foremost man 
in Japan. Katsii advised the bakufu not to fight Choshiu, and his 
master to resign his position, thus saving Yedo from destruction. The 
lesser men of note, pupils of Satsuma, who now hold positions of trust, 
or who have become disinterested Cincinnati, to show their patriotism, 
are too many to mention. 

Familiarity with the facts above exposed will enable one to under- 
stand the rush of events that followed the arrival of the American en- 
voy. The bakufu was apparently at the acme of power. The shogun 
Iyeyoshi at Yedo was faineant. The mikado at Kioto, Komei Tenno, 
father of the present emperor, was a man who understood well his 
true position, hated the bakufu as a nest of robbers, and all foreigners 
as unclean beasts. Within the empire, all was ripe for revolution. 
Beneath the portentous calm, those who would listen could hear the 
rumble of the political earthquake. From without came puffs of news, 
like atmospheric pulses portending a cyclone. On that 8th day of 
July, 1853, the natural sea and sky wearing perfect calm, the magnifi- 
cent fleet of the " barbarian " ships sailed up the Bay of Yedo. It was 
the outer edge of the typhoon. The Susquehanna was leading the 
squadrons of seventeen nations. 

There was one spectator upon the bluffs at Yokohama who was per- 
suaded in his own mind that the men who could build such ships as 
those ; who were so gentle, kind, patient, firm ; having force, yet using 
it not ; demanding to be treated as equals, and in return dealing with 
Japanese as with equals, could not be barbarians. If they were, it 
were better for the Japanese to become barbarous. That man was 
Katsii, now the Secretary of the Japanese Navy. 

The barbarian envoy was a strange creature. He was told to leave 
the Bay of Yedo and go to Nagasaki. He impolitely refused, and 
staid and surveyed, and was dignified. This was anomalous. Other 
barbarians had not acted so ; they had quietly obeyed orders. Fur- 
thermore, he brought letters and presents, all directed " To the Em- 
peror of Japan." The shogun was not emperor, but he must make 
believe to be so. It would not do to call himself the mikado's general 
only. This title awed sufficiently at home ; but would the strangers 
respect it ? A pedantic professor (" not the Prince of Dai Gaku ") in 



304 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the Chinese college (Dai Gaku Ko) at Yedo was sent to treat with 
the barbarian Perry. A chopper of Chinese logic, and a stickler for 
exact terms, the pedant must, as in duty bound, exalt his master. He 
inserted, or at least allowed to be used in the treaties the title tai-kun, 
a purely Chinese word, which in those official documents signified that 
he was the supreme ruler of all Japan. This title had never been be- 
stowed upon the shogun by the mikado, nor had it ever been used in 
the imperial official documents. The bakufu and the pedantic pro- 
fessor, Hayashi, did not mean to lie to the true sovereign in Kioto. 
The bakufu, like a frog, whose front is white, whose back is black, 
could look both ways, and present two fronts. Seen from Kioto, the 
lie was white ; that is, " meant nothing." Looked at by those unsus- 
pecting dupes, the barbarians, it was black ; that is, " The august Sov- 
ereign of Japan," as the preamble of the Perry treaty says. Yet to the 
jealous emperor and court this white lie was, as ever white lies are, the 
blackest of lies. It created the greatest uneasiness and alarm. The 
shogun had no shadow of right to this bombastic figment of authority. 

It was a new illustration in diplomacy of JEsop's Fable No. 26. 
The great Yedo frog puffed itself to its utmost to equal the Kioto ox, 
and it burst in the attempt. The last carcass of these batrachians in 
diplomacy was buried in Shidzuoka, a city ninety-five miles south- 
west of Tokio, in 1868. The writer visited this ancient home of the 
Tokugawas in 1872, and in a building within a mile of the actual 
presence of the last and still living " tycoon," and within shouting dis- 
tance of thousands of his ex -retainers, saw scores of the presents 
brought by Commodore Perry lying, many of them, in mildew, rust, 

or neglect. They were all labeled " Presented by the of 

the United States to the Emperor of Japan." Yet the mikado never 
saw them. The Japanese excel at a jibe, but when did they perpe- 
trate sarcasm so huge ? The mikado's government, with Pilate's irony, 
had allowed the tycoon to keep the presents, with the labels on them ! 

We may fairly infer that so consummate a diplomatist as Perry, 
had he understood the true state of affairs, would have gone with his 
fleet to Ozaka, and opened negotiations with the mikado at Kioto, in- 
stead of with his lieutenant at Yedo. Perhaps he never knew that he 
had treated with an underling. 

The immediate results of the opening of the ports to foreign com- 
merce in 1859 were the disarrangement of the prices of the necessaries 
of life, and almost universal distress consequent thereon, much sickness 
and mortality from the importation of foreign diseases, to which was 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 305 

added an exceptional succession of destructive earthquakes, typhoons, 
floods, fires, and storms. In the midst of these calamities the shogun, 
Iyesada, died. 

An heir must be chosen. His selection devolved upon the tairo, 
or regent, Ii, a man of great ability, daring, and, as his enemies say, 
of unscrupulous villainy. Ii,* though socially of low rank, possessed 
almost supreme power. Ignoring the popular choice of Keiki (the 
seventh son of the Daimio of Mito), who had been adopted by the 
house of Hitotsubashi, he chose the Prince of Kii, a boy twelve years 
of age. In answer to the indignant protests of the princes of Mito,f 
Echizen, and Owari, he shut them up in prison, and thus alienated 
from his support the near relatives of the house of Tokugawa. It 
was his deliberate intention, say his enemies, to depose the mikado, 
as the Ho jo did, and set up a boy emperor again. At the same time, 
all who opposed him or the bakufu, or who, in either Kioto, Yedo, or 
elsewhere, agitated the restoration of the mikado, he impoverished, 
imprisoned, exiled, or beheaded. Among his victims were many noble 
scholars and patriots, whose fate excited universal pity. J 



* The premier, Ii, was the Daimio of Hikone, a castled town and fief on Lake 
Biwa, in Mino ; revenue, three hundred and fifty thousand koku. He was at the 
head of the fudai. His personal name was Nawosuke; his title at the emperor's 
court was kamon no kami — head of the bureau of the Ku Nai Sho (imperial house- 
hold)— having in charge the hangings, curtains, carpets, mats, and the sweeping 
of the palace on state occasions. His rank at Kioto was Chiujo, or "general of 
the second class." In the bakufu, he was prime minister, or "tairo." He had 
a son, who was afterward educated in Brooklyn, New York. 

f It would be impossible in brief space to narrate the plots and counterplots at 
Yedo and Kioto during the period 1860-1868. As a friendly critic (in The Hiogo 
News, June 9th, 1875) has pointed out, I allow that the Prince of Mito, while 
wishing to overthrow the shogunate, evidently wished to see the restoration ac- 
complished with his son, Keiki, in a post of high honor and glory. While in 
banishment, secret instructions were sent from Kioto, which ran thus: "The 
bakufu has shown great disregard of public opinion in concluding treaties with- 
out waiting for the opinion of the court, and in disgracing princes so closely al- 
lied by blood to the shogun. The mikado's rest is disturbed by the spectacle of 
such misgovernment, when the fierce barbarian is at our very door. Do you, 
therefore, assist the bakufu with your advice ; expel the barbarians ; content the 
mind of the people; and restore tranquillity to his majesty's bosom." — Kinse 
Shiriaku, p. 11, Satow's translation. This letter was afterward delivered up to 
the bakufu, shortly after which (September, 1861) the old prince died. The Mito 
clan was for many years afterward divided into two factions, the "Righteous" 
and the "Wicked." There is no proof that the Prince of Mito poisoned Iyesada, 
except the baseless guess of Sir Rutherford Alcock, which has a value at par with 
most of that writer's statements concerning Japanese history. 

X Among others was Yoshida Shoin, a samurai of Choshiu, and a student of 



306 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The mikado being by right the supreme ruler, and the shogun 
merely a vassal, no treaty with foreigners could be binding unless 
signed by the mikado. 

The shogun or his ministers had no right whatever to sign the 
treaties. Here was a dilemma. The foreigners were pressing the 
ratification of the treaties on the bakufu, while the mikado and court 
as vigorously refused their consent. Ii was not a man to hesitate. As 
the native chronicler writes : " He began to think that if, in the pres- 
ence of these constant arrivals of foreigners of different nations, he 
were to wait for the Kioto people to make up their minds, some un- 
lucky accident might bring the same disasters upon Japan as China 
had already experienced. He, therefore, concluded a treaty at Kana- 
gawa, and affixed his seal to it, after which he reported the transac- 
tion to Kioto." 

This signature to the treaties without the mikado's consent stirred 
up intense indignation at Kidto and throughout the country, which 
from one end to the other now resounded with the cry, " Honor the 
mikado, and expel the barbarian." In the eyes of patriots, the regent 
was a traitor. Hfs act gave the enemies of the bakufu a legal pretext 
of enmity, and was the signal of the regent's doom. All over the 
country thousands of patriots left their homes, declaring their inten- 

European learning. He was the man who tried to get on board Commodore 
Perry's ship at Shimoda (Perry's " Narrative," p. 485-488): He had been kept in 
prison in his clan since 1854. He wrote a pamphlet against the project of taking 
up arms agaiust the bakufu, for which he was rewarded by the Tedo rulers with 
his liberty. After Ii's arbitrary actions, Yoshida declared that the shogunate 
could not be saved, and must fall. When the shogun' s ministers were arresting 
patriots in Kioto, Yoshida resolved to take his life. For this plot, after detection, 
he was sent to Yedo in a cage, and beheaded. This ardent patriot, whose memo- 
ry is revered by all parties, was one of the first far-sighted men to see that Japan 
must adopt foreign civilization, or fall before foreign progress, like India. The 
national enterprises now in operation were urged by him in an able pamphlet 
written before his death. 

Another victim, a student of European literature, and a fine scholar in Dutch 
and Chinese, named Hashimoto Sanai, of Fukui, brother of my friend Dr. Hashi- 
moto, surgeon in the Japanese army, fell a martyr to his loyalty and patriotism. 
This gentleman was the instrument of arousing an enthusiasm for foreign science 
in Fukui, which ultimately resulted in the writer's appointment to Fukui. Ha- 
shimoto saw the need of opening peaceful relations with foreigners, but believed 
that it could safely be done only under the restored and unified government. 
Under a system of divided authority, he held that the ruin of Japan would re- 
sult. Had Perry treated with the mikado, foreign war might possibly have re- 
sulted, though very probably not. By treating with the counterfeit emperor in 
Yedo, civil war, foreign hostilities, impoverishment of the country, and national 
misery, prolonged for years, were inevitable. 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 307 

tion not to return to them until the mikado, restored to power, should 
sweep away the barbarians. Boiling over with patriotism, bands of 
assassins, mostly ronins, roamed the country, ready to slay foreigners, 
or the regent, and to die for the mikado. On the 23d of March, Ii 
was assassinated in Yedo, outside the Sakurada gate of the castle, near 
the spot where now stand the offices of the departments of War and 
Foreign Affairs, and the Gothic brick buildings of the Imperial Col- 
lege of Engineering. Then followed the slaughter of insolent foreign- 
ers, and in some cases of innocent ones, and the burning of their lega- 
tions, the chief object in nearly every case being to embroil the baku- 
fu with foreign powers, and thus hasten its fall. Some of these ama- 
teurs, who in foreign eyes were incendiaries and assassins, and in the 
native view noble patriots, are now high officials in the mikado's 
Government. 

The prestige of the bakufu declined daily, and the tide of influence 
and power set in steadily toward the true capital. The custom of the 
shogun's visiting Kioto, and doing homage to the mikado, after an in- 
terval of two hundred and thirty years, was revived, which caused his 
true relation to be clearly understood even by the common people, who 
then learned for the first time the fact that the rule existed, and had 
been so long insolently ignored. The Prince of Echizen, by a special 
and unprecedented act of the bakufu, and in obedience to orders from 
the Kioto court, was made premier. By his own act, as many believe, 
though he was most probably only the willing cat's-paw of the South- 
ern daimios, he abolished the custom of the daimios' forced residence 
in Yedo. Like wild birds from an opened cage, they, with all their 
retainers, fled from the city in less than a week. Yedo's glory faded 
like a dream, and the power and greatness of the Tokugawas came to 
naught. Few of the clans obeyed any longer the command of the 
bakufu, and gradually the hearts of the people fell away. " And so," 
says the native chronicler, "the prestige of the Tokugawa family, 
which had endured for three hundred years; which had been really 
more brilliant than Kamakura in the age of Yoritomo on a moonlight 
night when the stars are shining ; which for more than two hundred 
and seventy years had forced the daimios to come breathlessly to take 
their turn of duty in Yedo ; and which had, day and night, eighty 
thousand vassals at its beck and call, fell to ruin in the space of one 
morning." 

The clans now gathered at the true miako, Kioto, which became a 
scene of gayety and bustle unknown since the days of the Taira 



308 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



Ending their allegiance to the bakufu, they began to act either ac- 
cording to their own will, or only at the bidding of the court. They 
filled the imperial treasury with gold, and strengthened the hands of 
the Son of Heaven with their loyal devotion. Hatred of the foreign- 
er, and a desire to fill their empty coffers with the proceeds of com- 
merce, swayed the minds of many of them like the wind among reeds. 
Others wished to open the ports in their fiefs, so as to pocket the prof- 




Mateudaira Yoshiuaga, ex-Daimio of Echizen, Chief Minister of State in 1862. (From a 
carte-de-visite presented by him.) 

its of foreign commerce, which the bakufu enjoyed as its monopoly, 
A war of pamphlets ensued, some writers attempting to show that the 
clans owed allegiance to the bakufu ; others condemning the idea as 
treasonable, and, having the historic facts on their side, proved the mi- 
kado to be the sole sovereign. The bakufu, acting upon the pressure 
of public opinion in Kioto, and in hopes of restoring its prestige, bent 
all its efforts to close the ports and persuade the foreigners to leave 
Japan. For this purpose they sent an embassy to Europe. To has- 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN 309 

ten their steps, the ronins now began the systematic assassination of all 
who opposed their plans, pillorying their heads in the dry bed of the 
river in front of the city. As a hint to the Tokugawa " usurpers," 
they cut off the heads of wooden images of the first three Ashikaga 
shoguns, and stuck them on poles in public. The ronins were ar- 
rested ; Choshiu espoused their side, while Aidzu, who was governor 
of the city, threw them into prison. The mikado, urged by the clam- 
orous braves, and by kuge who had never seen one of the " hairy for- 
eigners," nor dreamed of their power, issued an order for their expul- 
sion from Japan. The Choshiu men, the first to act, erected batteries 
at Shimonoseki. The bakufu, which was responsible to foreigners, 
commanded the clan to disarm. They refused, and in July, 1863, fired 
on foreign vessels. They obeyed the mikado, and disobeyed the sho- 
gun. During the next month, Kagoshima was bombarded by a Brit- 
ish squadron. 

On the 4th of September, the Choshiu cannoneers fired on a bakufu 
steamer, containing some men of the Kokura clan who were enemies 
of Choshiu, and who had given certain aid and comfort to foreign ves- 
sels, and refused to fire on the latter. The Choshiu men in Kioto be- 
sought the mikado to make a progress to Yamato, to show to the em- 
pire his intention of taking the field in person against the barbarians. 
The proposal was accepted, and the preliminaries arranged, when sud- 
denly all preparations were stopped, Choshiu became an object of 
blackest suspicion, the palace gates were doubly guarded, the city was 
thrown into violent commotion ; while the deliberations of the palace 
ended in the expulsion of Sanjo Saneyoshi (now Dai Jo Dai Jin), 
Sawa (Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1870— "71), and five other court 
nobles, who were deprived of their rank and titles, while eighteen oth- 
ers were punished, and all retainers or members of the family of Mori 
(Choshiu) were peremptorily "forbidden to enter the capital" — a 
phrase that made them outlaws. An army was levied, and the city 
put in a state of defense. 

The reason of this was, that the Choshiu men were accused of plot- 
ting to get possession of the mikado's person, in order to dictate the 
policy of the empire. The eighteen kuge and the six ringleaders were 
suspected of abetting the plot. This, and the firing on the steamer 
containing their envoys, roused the indignation of the bakufu, and the 
clans loyal to it, especially Aidzu, to the highest pitch. The men of 
Choshiu, accompanied by the seven kuge, fled, September 30th, 1863, 
to their province. 



310 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Choshiu now became the rendezvous of deserters and ronins from 
all parts of Japan. In July of the following year, 1864, a body of 
many hundred of irresponsible men of various clans, calling themselves 
" Irregulars," arrived in Kioto from the South, to petition the mikado 
to restore Mori and the seven nobles to honor, and to drive out the 
barbarians. Aidzu and the shogun's vassals were for attacking these 
men with arms at once. The mikado, not adopting the views of the 
petitioners, returned them no answer. On July 30th, the " Irregulars" 
were increased by many hitherto calm, but now exasperated, Choshiu 
men, and encamped in battle array in the suburbs, where they were 
joined, August 1 5th, by two karos, and two hundred men from Choshiu, 
sent by Prince Mori to restrain his followers from violence. While 
thus patiently waiting, a notification that they were to be punished was 
issued, August 1 9th, to them by the court, then under the influence of 
Aidzu, and Keiki was put in command of the army of chastisement. 

With tears and letters of sorrowful regret to their friends at court, 
the Choshiu men and the ronins, in a written manifesto vindicated the 
justness of their cause, swore vengeance against Aidzu, whose troops 
were encamped in the imperial flower-garden, and then asking pardon 
of the Son of Heaven " for making a disturbance so near the base of 
the chariot " (the throne), they accepted the wager of battle, and rushed 
to the attack. " The crisis had arrived," says the native chronicler, 
" and the spirit of murder filled and overflowed heaven and earth. 
The term choteki, which for centuries had been obsolete, now again 
came into being. Many myriads of habitations were destroyed, and 
millions of people were plunged into a fiery pit." On the 20th of 
August, 1864, at day-dawn, the battle began, the Choshiu men advan- 
cing in three divisions, 'numbering in all thirteen hundred men, their 
design being to attack the nine gates of the imperial palace and sur- 
round the flower-garden. The Tokugawa and Aidzu troops were 
backed by those of Echizen, Hikone, Kuwana, and others. The bat- 
tle raged furiously for two days, involving the city in a conflagration, 
which, fanned by a gale, reduced large quarters of it to a level of ashes. 
The fighting was by men in armor, equipped mostly with sword, ar- 
row, cannon, and musket: 811 streets, 27,400 houses, 18 palaces, 44 
large and 630 small yashikis, 60 Shinto shrines, 115 Buddhist temples, 
40 bridges, 400 beggar's huts, and one eta village were destroyed by 
the flames; 1216 fire-proof store-houses were knocked to pieces by 
the cannonading kept up after the battle to prevent the Choshiu men 
from hiding in them. " The capital, surrounded by a nine-fold circle 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 311 

of flowers, entirely disappeared in one morning in the smoke of the 
flames of a war fire." The homeless city populace fled to the suburbs, 
dwelling on roofless earth, pestered by the heat and clouds of mos- 
quitoes, while men in soldiers' dress played the robber without fear 
or shame. " The Blossom Capital became a scorched desert." The 
Choshiu were utterly defeated, and driven out of the city. Thirty- 
seven of them were decapitated in prison. 

The next month the bakufu begged the imperial court to deprive 
the Mori family and all its branches of their titles. Elated with suc- 
cess, an order was issued to all the clans to march to the chastisement 
of the two provinces of Nagato and Suwo. The Tokugawa intended 
thus to set an example to the wavering clans, and give proof of the 
power it still possessed. During the same month, September 5th and 
6th, 1864, Shimonoseki was bombarded by an allied fleet bearing the 
flags of four foreign nations. After great destruction of life and 
property, the generous victors demanded an "indemnity" of three 
million Mexican dollars (see Appendix). The brave clan, having de- 
fied the bakufu at Kioto, dared the prowess of the " civilized world," 
and stood to their guns at Shimonoseki till driven away by over- 
whelming numbers of balls and men, now prepared to face the com- 
bined armies of the shogunate. 

Then was revealed the result of the long previous preparation in 
the South for war. The Choshiu clansmen, united and alert, were 
lightly dressed, armed with English and American rifles, drilled in Eu- 
ropean tactics, and abundantly provided with artillery, which they 
fired rapidly and with precision. They had cast away armor, sword, 
and spear. Choshiu had long been the seat of Dutch learning, and 
translations of Dutch military works were numerously made and used 
there. Their disciplined battalions were recruited from the common 
people, not from the samurai alone, were well paid, and full of enthu- 
siasm. The bakufu had but a motley, half-hearted army, many of 
whom, when the order was given to march, straightway fell ill, having 
no stomach for the fight. Some of the most influential clans declined 
or refused outright to join the expedition, whose purpose was con- 
demned by almost all the wisest leaders, notably by Katsu, the sho- 
gun's adviser. 

A campaign of three months, in the summer of 1866, ended in the 
utter and disgraceful defeat of the bakufu, and the triumph of Cho- 
shiu. The clans not yet in the field refused to go to the front. The 
prestige of the shogunate was now irretrievably ruined. 



312 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The young shogun, worn out with ceaseless anxiety, died at Ozaka, 
September 19th, 1866. He had secured the mikado's consent to the 
treaties, on the condition that they should be revised, and that Hiogo 
should never be opened as a port of foreign commerce. He was suc- 
ceeded by Keiki, his former rival, who was appointed head of the To- 
kugawa family by the court October, 1866. On the 6th of January, 
1867, he was made shogun. He had repeatedly declined the position. 
He brought to it numerous private virtues, but only the firmness of a 
feather for the crisis at hand. The average Japanese lacks the stolid- 
ity and obstinacy of the Chinaman, and fickleness is supposed to be 
his chief characteristic. Keiki, as some of his once best friends say, 
was fickleness personified. If, with the help of counselors, he could 
make up his mind to one course of action, the keenest observers could 
never forecast the change liable to ensue when new advisers appeared. 
It is evident that the appointment of such a man at this crisis served 
only to precipitate the issue. His popularity at the court most prob- 
ably arose from the fact that he was opposed to the opening of Hio- 
go and Ozaka to the foreigners. 

In October, 1867, the Prince of Tosa openly urged the new shogun 
to resign ; while many able samurai, Saigo, Okubo, Goto, Kido, Hiro- 
zawa, Komatsu, backed by such men of rank as Shimadzu Saburo, 
and the ex-princes of Echizen, Uwajima, Hizen, and Tosa, urged the 
formation of the Government on the basis of the ante-shogun era pri- 
or to 1200 a.d. They formed so powerful a combination that on the 
9th of November, 1867, the vacillating Keiki, yielding to the force of 
public opinion, tendered his resignation as Sei-i Tai Shogun. 

This was a long step toward the ancient regime. Yet, as in Japan, 
whichever party or leader has possession of the mikado is master of 
the situation ; and as the Aidzu clan, the most stanchly loyal to the 
Tokugawa family, kept guard at the gates of the imperial palace, it 
was still uncertain where the actual power would reside — whether in 
the Tokugawa clan, in the council of daimios, or, where it rightfully 
belonged, with the imperial court. The influential samurai of Satsu- 
ma, and Choshiu, and the princes of Tosa, Echizen, and Uwajima were 
determined not to let the question hang in suspense. Gradually, small 
parties of the soldiers of the combination assembled in the capital. 
Saigo and Okubo, Kido, Goto, and Iwakura, were too much in earnest 
to let the supreme opportunity slip. They began to stir up the court 
to take advantage of the critical moment, the mikado Komei being 
dead, and, by a bold coup d'etat, abolish the office of shogun and the 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN 313 

bakufu, and re-establish the Government on the ancient basis, with 
the young emperor at the head. 

On the 3d of January, 1868, the troops of the combination (Satsu- 
ma, Tosa, Echizen, Aki, and Owari) suddenly took possession of the 
palace gates. The court nobles hitherto surrounding the boy emper- 
or were dismissed, and only those favoring the views of the combina- 
tion were admitted to the palace. The court, thus purged, issued an 
edict in the name of the mikado, which stated that the government of 
the country was now solely in the hands of the imperial court. The 
bakufu and office of shogun were abolished. A provisional govern- 
ment, with three grades of office, was formed, and the positions were 
at once filled by men loyal to the new rulers. The family of Mori 
was rehabilitated, and the seven banished nobles were recalled. Sanjo 
and Iwakura were made assistants to the supreme administrator, Ari- 
sugawa Miya, a prince of the blood. 

The indignation of the retainers of Tokugawa knew no bounds. 
The vacillating shogun now regretted his resignation, and wished him- 
self back in power. He left Kioto with the clans still loyal to him, 
with the professed intention of calming the passions of his followers, 
but in reality of seizing Ozaka, and blocking up the communications 
of the Southerners. Shortly after, in Yedo, on the 19th of January, 
the yashikis of the Satsuma clan were stormed and burned by the 
bakufu troops. The Princes of Owari and Echizen were sent by the 
court to invite Keiki to join the new Government, and receive an ap- 
pointment to office even higher than he had held before. He prom- 
ised to do so, but no sooner were they gone than he yielded to Aidzu's 
warlike counsel to re-enter Kioto in force, drive out the " bad counsel- 
ors of the young emperor," and " try the issue with the sword." He 
was forbidden by the court to approach the city with a military fol- 
lowing. Barriers were erected across the two roads leading to the 
capital, and the Southern clansmen, numbering about two thousand, 
posted themselves behind them, with artillery. Keiki set out from 
Ozaka on the evening of the 27th of January, with the Aidzu and 
Kuwana clans in the front of his following, amounting to over ten, or, 
as some say, thirty thousand men. At Fushimi his messengers were 
refused passage through the barriers. The kuan-gun (loyal army, 
Kioto forces) fired their cannon, and the war was opened. The sho- 
gun's followers, by their last move on the political chess-board, had 
made themselves choteki. Their prestige had flown. 

The battle lasted three days. In the presence of overwhelming 



314 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



forces, the Southern samurai showed not only undaunted valor, but 
the result of previous years of military training. The battle was not 
to the strong. It was to the side of intelligence, energy, coolness, 
and valor. The shogun's army was beaten, and in wild disorder fled 
to Ozaka, the historic castle of which was burned by the loyal army. 
The chief, unrecognized, found refuge upon an American vessel, and, 
reaching Yedo on one of his own ships, sought the seclusion of his 




Keiki, the last Shogun of Japan. (Prom a photograph.) 

castle. His own family retainers and most of the subject clans (fudai), 
and the daimios of Aidzu, Sendai, and others of the North and East, 
urged him to renew the fight and restore his prestige. One of his min- 
isters earnestly begged him to commit hara-kiri, urging its necessity 
to preserve the honor of the Tokugawa clan. His exhortation being 
unsuccessful, the proposer solemnly opened his own bowels. ' With a 
large army, arsenals, munitions of war, and fleet of ships vastly exceed- 
ing those of the mikado, his chances of success were very fair. But 



THE EEC EXT REVOLUTIOXS IX JAPAX. 315 

this time the vassal was loyal, the waverer wavered no more. Refus- 
ing to listen to those who advised war, abhorring the very idea of be- 
ing a choteki, he hearkened to the counsel of his two highest minis- 
ters, Katsu and Okubo Ichio, and declaring that he would never take 
up arms against his lord, the mikado, he retired to private life. The 
comparison of this man with Washington because he refused to head 
an army, and thus save the country from a long civil war, does not 
seem to be very happy, though I have heard it made. Personal- 
ly, Keiki is a highly accomplished gentleman, though ambitious and 
weak. Politically, he simply did his duty, and made discretion the 
better part of valor. It is difficult to see in him any exalted traits of 
character or evidences of genius ; to Katsu and Okubo is due the last and 
best decision of his life. Katsu, the old pupil of Satsuma and com- 
rade of Saigo, had long foreseen that the governing power must and 
ought of right to revert to the mikado, and, braving odium and assas- 
sination, he advised his master to resign. The victorious Southerners, 
led by Saigo, were in the southern suburb of Yedo, waiting to attack 
the city. To reduce a Japanese city needs but a torch, and the im- 
patient victors would have left of Yedo little but ashes had there been 
resistance. Katsu, meeting Saigo, assured him of the submissive tem- 
per of the shogun, and begged him to spare the city. It was done. 
The fanatical retainers of Keiki made the temple grounds of Uyeno 
their stronghold. On the 4th of July they were attacked and routed, 
and the magnificent temple, the pride of the city, laid in ashes. The 
theatre of war was then transferred to the highlands of Aidzu at 
Wakamatsu, and thence to Matsumae and Hakodate in Yezo. Victory 
everywhere perched upon the mikado's brocade banner. By July 1st, 
1869, all vestiges of the rebellion had ceased, and "the empire was 
grateful for universal peace." 

The mikado's party was composed of the heterogeneous elements 
which a revolution usually brings forth. Side by side with high-soul- 
ed patriots were disreputable vagrants and scalawags of every descrip- 
tion, ronins, or low, two-swordedmen, jo-i, or " foreigner-haters," " port- 
closers," and Shinto priests and students. There were a few earnest 
men whose darling hope was to see a representative government estab- 
lished, while fewer yet eagerly wished Japan to adopt the civilization 
of the West, and join the brotherhood of nations. These men had 
utilized every current and eddy of opinion to forward their own views 
and achieve their own purpose. The object common to all was the 
exaltation of the mikado. The bond of union which held the major- 



316 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ity together was a determination to expel the foreigners or to revise 
the treaties so as to expunge the odious extra-territoriality clause — the 
thorn that still rankles in the side of every Japanese patriot. For 
eighteen months the energies of the jo-i, or " foreigner-haters," were 
utilized in the camp in fighting the rebellious Tokugawa retainers. 
The war over, the trials of the new Government began. The low, 
two-s worded men clamored for the fulfillment of the promise that the 
foreigners should be expelled from Japan and the ports closed. The 
Shinto officials induced the Government to persecute the native 
" Christians," demanded the abolition of Buddhism, the establishment 
of Shinto by edict, and the restoration of the Government on a purely 
theocratic basis, and echoed the cry of " Expel the barbarian." Even 
with the majority of the high officials there was no abandonment of 
the purpose to expel foreigners. They intended to do it, but the 
wisest of them knew that in their present condition they were not 
able. Hence they simply wished to bide their time, and gain strength. 
It was a matter of difficulty to keep patient thousands of swaggering 
braves whose only tools for earning bread were their swords. The 
first attention was given to reorganizing a national army, and to devel- 
oping the military resources of the empire. All this was done with 
the cherished end in view of driving out the aliens, closing the ports 
of commerce, and bringing back the days of dictatorial isolation. The 
desire for foreign civilization existed rather among the adherents of 
Tokugawa, among whom were many enlightened gentlemen, besides 
students and travelers, who had been to Europe and America, and who 
wished their country to take advantage of the inventions of the for- 
eigners. Yet many of the very men who once wished the foreigners 
expelled, the ports closed, the treaties repudiated, who were jo-i, or 
" foreigner-haters," and who considered all aliens as only a few degrees 
above the level of beasts, are now members of the mikado's Govern- 
ment, the exponents of advanced ideas, the defenders and executors 
of philo-Europeanism, or Western civilization. 

What caused the change that came over the spirit of their dreams ? 
Why do they now preach the faith they once destroyed? "It was 
the lessons taught them at Kagoshima and Shimonoseki," say some. 
" It was the benefits they saw would arise from commerce," say others. 
" The child of the revolution was changed at nurse, and the Govern- 
ment now in power was put into its cradle by mistake or design," say 
others. 

Cannon-balls, commerce, and actual contact with foreigners doubt 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN 31? 

less helped the scales to fall from their eyes, but these were helps only. 
All such means had failed in China, though tried for half a century. 
They would have failed in Japan also. It was an impulse from with- 
in that urged the Japanese to join the comity of nations. The noblest 
trait in the character of a Japanese is his willingness to change for the 
better when he discovers his wrong or inferiority. This led the leaders 
to preach the faith they once destroyed, to destroy the faith they once 
preached. 

The great work of enlightening the mikado's followers was begun 
by the Japanese leaders, Okubo, Kido, Goto, all of them students, 
both of the ancient native literature and of foreign ideas. It was fin- 
ished by Japanese writers. The kuge, or court nobles, wished to ig- 
nore the existence of foreigners, drive them out of the country, or 
worry them by appointing officers of low rank in the Foreign Office, 
then an inferior sub - bureau. Okubo, Goto, and Kido promptly op- 
posed this plan, and sent a noble of the imperial court, Higashi Kuze, 
to Hiogo with Datte, Prince of Uwajima (see Appendix), to give the 
mikado's consent to the treaties, and to invite the foreign ministers to 
an audience with the emperor in Kioto. The British and Dutch min- 
isters accepted the invitation ; the others declined. The train of the 
British envoy was assaulted by fanatic assassins, one resisting bullet, 
lance, and sabre of the English dragoons, only to lose his head by the 
sweep of the sword of Goto, who rode by the side of the foreigners, 
determined to secure their audience of the mikado. At first sight of 
the strangers, the conversion of the kuge was thorough and instan- 
taneous. They made friends with the men they once thought were 
beasts. 

In a memorial to the mikado, Okubo further gave expression to his 
ideas in a memorial that astounded the court and the wavering dai- 
mios, as follows : " Since the Middle Ages, our emperor has lived be- 
hind a screen, and has never trodden the earth. Nothing of what 
went on outside his screen ever penetrated his sacred ear ; the imperial 
residence was profoundly secluded, and, naturally, unlike the outer 
world. Not more than a few court nobles were allowed to approach 
the throne, a practice most opposed to the principles of heaven. Al- 
though it is the first duty of man to respect his superior, if he reveres 
that superior too highly he neglects his duty, while a breach is created 
between the sovereign and his subjects, who are unable to convey their 
wants to him. This vicious practice has been common in all ages. But 
now let pompous etiquette be done away with, and simplicity become 

21 



318 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

our first object. Kioto is in an out-of-the-way position, and is unfit 
to be the seat of government. Let his majesty take up his abode tem- 
porarily at Ozaka, removing his capital hither, and thus cure one of 
the hundred abuses which we inherit from past ages." 

The memorial produced an immediate and lively effect upon the 
court. The young mikado, Mutsuhito, came in person to the meet- 
ings of the council of state, and before the court nobles and daimios 
took an oath, as an actual ruler, promising that " a deliberative assem- 
bly should be formed ; all measures be decided by public opinion ; the 
uncivilized customs of former times should be broken through ; and 
the impartiality and justice displayed in the workings of nature be 
adopted as a basis of action ; and that intellect and learning should be 
sought for throughout the world, in order to establish the foundations 
of the empire." This oath is the basis of the new Government. 

These promises are either the pompous bombast of a puppet or the 
pregnant utterances of a sovereign, who in magnanimity and wisdom 
aspires to lead a nation into a higher life. That such words should 
in that sublime moment fall from the lips of the chief of an Oriental 
despotism excites our sympathetic admiration. They seem a sublime 
echo of affirmation to the prophetic question of the Hebrew seer, 
" Can a nation be born at once ?" They sound like a glad harbinger 
of a new and higher national development, such as only those with the 
strongest faith in humanity believe possible to an Asiatic nation. As 
matter of fact, the words were uttered by a boy of sixteen years, who 
scarcely dreamed of the tremendous significance of the language put 
into his mouth by the high-souled parvenus who had made him em- 
peror de facto, and who were resolved to have their ideas made the 
foundations of the new Government. The result of the memorial, and 
the ceaseless activity of Okubo and his colleagues, was the ultimate 
removal of the Government to Yedo. It is not easy for a foreigner 
to comprehend the profound sensation produced throughout the em- 
pire when the mikado left Kioto to make his abode in another city. 
During a millennium, Kioto had been the capital of Dai Nippon, and 
for twenty-five centuries, according to popular belief, the mikados had 
ruled from some spot near the site of the sacred city. A band of 
fanatics, fired with the Yamato damashi, religiously opposed, but in 
vain, his journey eastward. To familiarize his people with the fact 
that Yedo was now the capital, its name was changed to Tokio, or 
Eastern Capital. 

Then was further developed the impulse to enter the path of mod- 



THE HE CENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN. 319 

em civilization. While Okubo, Kido, Goto, Iwakura, Sanjo, Itagaki, 
Oki, and the rising officials sought to purge and strengthen the po- 
litical system, the work of enlightening the people and the upstarts 
raised suddenly to power was done by Japanese writers, who for 
the first time dared, without suffering death, to tell their thoughts. 
A large measure of freedom of the press was guaranteed ; newspapers 
sprung up in the capital. Kido, one of the prime movers and leaders, 
himself established one of the most vigorous, still in existence — the 
Shimbun Zasshi. The new Government acted with clemency equal to 
the standard in Christian nations, and most generously to the literary 
and scientific men among the retainers of the Tokugawas, and invited 
them to fill posts of honor under the Government. They sent none of 
the political leaders to the blood-pit, but by the gracious favor of the 
mikado these were pardoned, and the conciliation of all sections of the 
empire wisely attempted. Many of those who fought the loyal forces 
at Fushimi, Wakamatsu, and Hakodate are now the earnest advocates 
of the restoration and its logical issues. Even Enomoto is envoy of 
the court of Tokio to that of St. Petersburg. All of the defeated 
daimios were restored to rank and income. A complete and happy 
reunion of the empire was the result. Some of the scholars declined 
office until the time when even greater freedom of speech and pen was 
permitted. 

There were men who in the old days, braving odium, and even 
death, at the hands of the bakufu, had begun the study of the English 
and Dutch languages, and to feed their minds at the Occidental fount- 
ains. They were obliged to copy their books in manuscript, so rare 
were printed copies. Later on, the bakufu, forced by necessity to have 
interpreters and men skilled in foreign arts and sciences, chose these 
students, and sent them abroad to study. When the civil war broke 
out, they were recalled, reaching Japan shortly after the fighting be- 
gan. They returned, says one of their number, " with their faces 
flushed with enthusiastic sympathy with the modern civilization of 
Christendom." Then they began the preparation of those original 
works and translations, which were eagerly read by the new men in 
power. Edition after edition was issued, bought, read, lent, and circu- 
lated. In these books the history of the Western nations was faith- 
fully told ; their manners and customs and beliefs were explained and 
defended ; their resources, methods of thought and education, morals, 
laws, systems of governments, etc., were described and elucidated. 
Notably pre - eminent among these writers was the school - master, Fu- 



320 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

kuzawa. Western ideas were texts : he clothed them in Japanese 
words. He further pointed out the weaknesses, defects, and errors 
of his countrymen, and showed how Japan, by isolation and the false 
pride that scorned all knowledge derived from foreigners, had failed 
to advance like Europe or America, and that nothing could save his 
country from conquest or decay but the assimilation of the ideas 
which have made the foreigners what they are. There is scarcely a 
prominent or rising man in Japan but has read Fukuzawa's works, and 
gratefully acknowledges the stimulus and lasting benefit derived from 
them. Many of the leaders of the movement toward restoration, who 
joined it with the cry, " Expel the foreigners," found themselves, after 
perusal of these works, "unconsciously involved in the advance, with- 
out wish or invitation," and utterly unable to explain why they were 
in the movement. Fukuzawa has declined every one of the many flat- 
tering offers of office and power under the Government, and still de- 
votes himself to his school and the work of teaching and translation, 
consuming his life in noble drudgery. He has been the interpreter of 
Western ideas and life, caring little about the merely external garnish 
and glitter of civilization. His books on " Western Manners and Cus- 
toms," and his volumes of tracts and essays, have had an enormous 
circulation. 

Nakamura, also a school-master, has, besides writing original tracts, 
translated a considerable body of English literature, John Stuart Mill's 
" Essay on Liberty," Smiles's " Self-help," and a few smaller works on 
morals and religion, which have been widely read. His memorial on 
the subject of Christianity and religious liberty made a very profound 
impression upon the emperor and court, and gave a powerful check to 
the ultra Shintoists. Mori, Mitsukuri, Kato, Nishi, ITchida, Uriu, have 
also done noble service as authors and translators. It is the writer's 
firm belief, after nearly four years of life in Japan, mingling among 
the progressive men of the empire, that the reading and study of books 
printed in the Japanese language have done more to transform the Jap- 
anese mind, and to develop an impulse in the direction of modern civ- 
ilization, than any other cause or series of causes. 

During the past decade the production of purely Japanese literature 
has 'almost entirely ceased. A few histories of recent events, a few 
war-poems and pamphlets urging the expulsion of the barbarians, were 
issued previous to the civil war ; but since then almost the entire lit- 
erary activity has been exhibited in translations, political documents, 
memoirs of "mikado-reverencers" who had been martyrs to their faith, 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN 321 

and largely in the expression of Western ideas adapted to the under- 
standing of the Japanese. 

The war was ended by July, 1870. Rewards were distributed; and 
the Government was still further consolidated by creating definite 
offices, and making all titles, which had been for nearly six centuries 
empty names, to have reality and power. There was still, however, 
much dead wood in the ship of state, a condition of chronic strain, a 
dangerous amount of friction in the machinery, wrangling among the 
crew, and a vast freight of bad cargo that the purest patriots saw the 
good ship must " unload," if she was to be saved. This unloading was 
accomplished in the usual way, by dismissing hundreds of officials one 
day, and re-appointing on the next only those favorable to the desired 
policy of the mikado. 

Furthermore, it became daily more certain that national develop- 
ment and peace could never be secured while the feudal system ex- 
isted. The clan spirit which it fostered was fatal to national unity. 
So long as a Japanese meant by " my country " merely his own clan, 
loyalty might exist, but patriotism could not. The time seemed ripe 
for action. The press was busy in issuing pamphlets advocating the 
abolition of feudalism. Several of the great daimios, long before ready 
for it, now openly advocated the change. The lesser ones knew bet- 
ter than to oppose it. The four great clans, Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, 
and Hizen (see Appendix), were the pioneers of the movement. They 
addressed a memorial to the throne, in which it was argued that the 
daimios' fiefs ought not to be looked on as private property, but as 
the mikado's own. They offered to restore the registers of their clans 
to the sovereign. These were the external signs of the times. Back 
of these, there were at least three men who were determined to sweep 
feudalism away utterly. They were Kido, Okubo, Iwakura. The first 
step was to abolish the appellation of court noble (kuge) and territo- 
rial prince (daimio), and to designate both as kuazoku, or noble fami- 
lies. The former heads of clans were temporarily appointed chiji 
(governors of their clans). This smoothed the way. In September, 
1871, the edict went forth calling the daimios to Tokio to retire to pri- 
vate life. With scarcely an exception, the order was quietly obeyed. 
The men behind the throne in Tokio were ready and even willing to 
shed blood, should their (the mikado's) commands be resisted, and 
they expected to do it. The daimios who were hostile to the measure 
knew too well the character of the men who framed the edict to resist 
it. The writer counts among the most impressive of all his life's ex- 



322 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

periences that scene in the immense castle hall of Fukui, when the 
Daimio of Echizen bid. farewell to his three thousand two-sworded re- 
tainers, and, amidst the tears and smiles and loving farewells of the 
city's populace, left behind him lands, revenue, and obedient followers, 
and retired to live as a private gentleman in Tokio. 

Japan's feudalism began nearly eight centuries ago, and existed un- 
til within the year 1871. It was not a tower of strength in its last 
days. Long before its fall, it was an empty shell and a colossal sham. 
Feuddism is only alive and vigorous when the leaders are men of 
brain and action. Of all the daimios, there were not ten of any per- 
sonal importance. They were amiable nobodies, great only in stom- 
ach or silk robes. Many were sensualists, drunkards, or titled fools. 
The real power in each clan lay in the hands of able men of inferior 
rank, who ruled their masters. These are now the men who compose 
the present Government of Japan. They rose against the shogun, 
overthrew him, sent him to private life, and then compelled their mas- 
ters, the daimios, to do likewise. They hold the emperor, and carry 
on the government in his name. The mikado, however, is much more 
of a ruler than his faineant ancestors. Still, the source of government 
is the same. In 1872, by actual count, four-fifths of the men in the 
higher offices were of the four great clans of Choshiu, Satsuma, Hizen, 
and Tosa. A like census in 1876 would show a larger proportion of 
officials from the northern and central provinces. Nevertheless, this 
is not sectionalism. The ablest men rise to office and power in spite 
of the locality of their birth. Natural ability asserts its power, and in 
the Cabinet and departments are now many of the old bakufu adher- 
ents, even Katsu, Okubo Ichio, Enomoto, and several scions of the 
house of Tokugawa. The power has been shifted, not changed, and 
is displayed by moving new machinery and doing new work. 

Who are now, and who have been, the actual leaders in Japan since 
1868 ? They are Okubo, Kido, Iwakura, Sanjo, Goto, Katsu, Soyejima, 
Okuma, Oki, Ito, and many others, of whom but two or three are kuge, 
while none is a daimio. Almost all were simple samurai, or retainers 
of the territorial nobles. 

The objects of the revolution of 1868 have been accomplished. 
The shogunate and the feudal system are forever no more. The mi- 
kado is now the restored and beloved emperor. The present per- 
sonage, a young man of twenty-four years of age, has already shown 
great independence and firmnness of character, and may in future be- 
come as much the real ruler of his people as the Czar is of his. The 



THE RECENT REVOLUTIONS IN JAPAN 323 

enterprise of establishing Shinto as the national faith has failed vastly 
and ignominiously, though the old Shinto temples have been purged 
and many new ones erected, while official patronage and influence 
give the ancient cult a fair outward show. Buddhism is still the re- 
ligion of the Japanese people, though doubtless on the wane. 

To summarize this chapter : the shogun was simply one of the many 
vassals of the mikado of comparatively inferior grade, and historically 
a usurper ; the term " tycoon " was a diplomatic fraud, a title to which 
the shogun had, officially, not the shadow of right ; the foreign diplo- 
matists made treaties with one who had no right whatever to make 
them ; the bakufu was an organized usurpation ; the stereotyped state- 
ments concerning a "spiritual" and a "secular" emperor are literary 
fictions of foreign book-makers ; feudalism arose upon the decadence 
of the mikado's power ; it was the chief hinderance to national unity, 
and was ready for its fall before the shock came ; in all Japanese his- 
tory the reverence for the mikado's person and the throne has been 
the strongest national trait and the mightiest political force ; the ba- 
kufu exaggerated the mikado's sacredness for its own purposes ; the 
Japanese are impressible and ever ready to avail themselves of what- 
ever foreign aids or appliances will tend to their own aggrandizement : 
nevertheless, there exists a strong tendency to conserve the national 
type, pride, feelings, religion, and equality with, if not superiority to, 
all the nations of the world ; the true explanation of the events of the 
last eight years in Japan is to be sought in these tendencies and the 
internal history of the nation ; the shogun, bakufu, and perhaps even 
feudalism would have fallen, had foreigners never landed in Japan ; 
the movement toward modern civilization originated from within, and 
was not simply the result of foreign impact or pressure ; the work of 
enlightenment and education, which alone could assure success to the 
movement, was begun and carried on by native students, statesmen, 
and simple patriots. 

A mighty task awaited the new Government after the revolution 
of 1868. It was to heal the disease of ages ; to uproot feudalism and 
sectionalism, with all their abuses ; to give Japan a new nationality ; to 
change her social system ; to infuse new blood into her veins ; to make 
a hermit nation, half blinded by a sudden influx of light, competitor 
with the wealthy, powerful, and aggressive nations of Christendom. 
It was a problem of national regeneration or ruin. It seemed like en- 
tering into history a second time, to be born again. 

What transcendent abilities needed for such a task ! What national 



324 THE MIX ABO'S EMPIRE. 

union, harmony in council, unselfish patriotism required ! What chief, 
towering above his fellows, would arise, who by mighty intellect and 
matchless tact could achieve what Yoritomo, or the Taiko, or Iyeyasu 
himself, or all, would be helpless to perform ? At home were the stol- 
idly conservative peasantry, backed by ignorance, superstition, priest- 
craft, and political hostility. On their own soil they were fronted 
by aggressive foreigners, who studied all Japanese questions through 
the spectacles of dollars and cents and trade, and whose diplomatists 
too often made the principles of Shylock their system. Outside, the 
Asiatic nations beheld with contempt, jealousy, and alarm the depart- 
ure of one of their number from Turanian ideas, principles, and civili- 
zation. China, with ill -concealed anger, Corea with open defiance, 
taunted Japan with servile submission to the " foreign devils." 

For the first time, the nation was represented to the world by an 
embassy at once august and plenipotentiary. It was not a squad of 
petty officials or local nobles going forth to kiss a toe, to play the 
part of figure-heads or stool-pigeons, to beg the aliens to get out of 
Japan, to keep the scales on foreign eyes, to buy gun-boats, or to hire 
employes. A noble of highest rank and blood of immemorial an- 
tiquity, vicar of majesty and national government, with four cabinet 
ministers, set out to visit the courts of the fifteen nations having 
treaties with Dai Nippon. These were Iwakura Tomomi, Okubo To- 
shimiti, Kido Takayoshi, Ito Hirobumi, and Yamaguchi Masaka. They 
were accompanied by commissioners representing every Government 
department, sent to study and report upon the methods and resources 
of foreign civilizations. They arrived in Washington, February 29th, 
1872, and, for the first time in history, a letter signed by the mikado 
was seen outside of Asia. It was presented by the embassadors, robed 
in their ancient Yamato costume, to the President of the United States, 
on the 4th of March, Mr. Arinori Mori acting as interpreter. " The first 
president of the free republic " and the men who had elevated the eta 
to citizenship stood face to face in fraternal accord. The one hundred 
and twenty-third sovereign of an empire in its twenty-sixth centennial 
saluted the citizen - ruler of a "nation whose century aloe had not yet 
bloomed. On the 6th of March they were welcomed on the floor of 
Congress. This day marked the formal entrance of Japan upon the 
theatre of universal history. 



BOOK II. 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, OBSERVATIONS, AND STUDIES 
IN JAPAN. 1870-1875. 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 327 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 

The longest unbroken stretch of water statedly traversed by the keel 
of steamer or sailing vessel lies between California and Japan. The 
floating city, which leaves its dock in San Francisco at noon on the 
first day of each month, pulses across four thousand miles of ocean, 
from which rises no island, harbor, or reef. Nothing amidst all the 
crowding triumphs of the genius and power of man so impresses the 
reflecting mind as the thought of that mighty ark, which, by the mag- 
net and the stars, is guided in safety to the desired haven. Without 
a Noah, without dove or olive leaf, freighted with bird, beast, and fish, 
and often with thirteen hundred human souls, over a flood of waters 
that cover a world beneath, alone for weeks, that ark floats on, at the 
bidding of the master. 

Twenty-seven days in the solitudes of the sea seem long to the man 
of this decade, who crosses the Atlantic's thousand leagues in nine 
days, and the New World in a week. Even the old traveler — whose 
digestion is sea-worthy; whose appetite is like a whetted saw; who 
meets a host of genial fellow-birds of passage, and finds officers who 
will answer questions: who discovers new and readable books in the 
ship's library ; and who delights in the study of steerage ethnology — 
yearns in his secret soul for the sight of land again. Even the ocean 
scenery, though, like God's mercies, new every morning and fresh ev- 
ery evening, palls on the eye, and loses its glory before the thoughts 
of the crowded city in which comforts cluster and pleasures bloom. 
The waves that daily cradle the infant sun and pillow his dying splen- 
dor, the effulgence of the cavernous sunsets, the wonders of spouting 
whales, flying-fish, phosphorescence at night, " multitudinous smiles " 
of waves by day, the circling gulls evermore, or even the fun of bury- 
ing a day (Saturday, December 16th) under the 180th meridian, would 
be gladly exchanged for a patch of farm or the sober glory of a wide- 
spreading oak. Often, indeed, the monotony of the voyage is relieved 
by meeting one of the company's steamers. If the weather be fair, 



328 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the pillar of cloud, or the long thin scarf of black smoke, descried afar 
off, is the harbinger of the coming ship. The exchange of newspapers 
and the sending homeward of letters are accomplished, to the intense 
delight of passengers jaded with ennui. 

Thus met in placid mid-ocean, on Sunday, December 11th, 1870, the 
P. M. S. S. Co.'s steamers Great Republic, Captain J. H. Freeman, from 
San Francisco, and the Japan, bound to San Francisco, from the land 
whither we were bound. All day long we had watched the smoke. 
At 5.30 p.m. a rocket was sent up from the Japan. In a few mo- 
ments our dinner-table was deserted. Within a stone's throw, the pas- 
sengers on either ship shouted to each other. The stately ships, with 
scores of lighted windows gleaming on the waters, parted at seven 
o'clock, one moving to the home-land, one to the Mikado's Empire. 

The meeting of steamers in mid-ocean is, strange to say, a matter of 
dislike to a certain class of persons, who, in spite of all preventive pre- 
cautions, keep up their existence. One or two " stowaways " are found 
on nearly every steamer that leaves the shores of either continent. 
They sneak on board the big ship while in port, and are driven from 
their lair, when at sea, by hunger. When first discovered, the inquisi- 
tor of the ship — the purser — uses all his skill to extort the full passage 
money. If not forthcoming, the " stowaway " is consigned to purga- 
tory — i. e., the fire-room, and compelled to pass coal and feed the fires. 
This process refines his feelings so far that the " dross " is produced, 
if on the victim's person. If he refuses to do duty, his fare being still 
unpaid, he is put in irons, but, by passing through purgatory of the 
furnace-room, he is " saved " from further punishment, and reaches the 
paradise of firm land, " yet so as by fire." 

All these incidents and accidents of sea-life cease to have any im- 
portance after the oracle at the head of the table, Captain J. H. Free- 
man, has announced that " we shall sight Cape King at day-break to- 
morrow." We try to sleep well during our last night on the water ; 
but sleep, so often won and long embraced thus far, becomes fickle and 
flies our eyelids. With joyful wakefulness, our thoughts are busy with 
the morrow, until at last, in the wee morning hours, our eyelids are 
sealed. 

I wake early on the 29th of December, 1870, and from out my 
state-room window behold the eye-gladdening land within rifle-shot. 
Hills, crested with timber, line the bay, and the beaches are dotted with 
thatched huts and white store-houses. Fishermen's boats, manned and 
moving over the bay, are near enough for us to distinguish their occu- 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 329 

pants. Tall, muscular men, with skin of a dirty copper color, in long, 
loose dress, their mid-scalps shaven, and the projecting cue or top-knot, 
of the percussion gun-hammer style, are the first natives of Japan whom 
we see at home. Though different in dress, condition, and as the bar- 
ber left them, from their gay fellow-countrymen who spend plenty of 
money and study hard in the United States, they, nevertheless, exactly 
resemble their brethren in physiognomy and general appearance. 

The dayspring in the east sifts enough of suggestive light over the 
land to entice us into the belief that the Land of the Rising Sun is 
one of the fairest on earth — a belief which a residence of years has 
ripened into an article of faith. To the right lie the two mountainous 
provinces of Awa and Kadzusa, with their numerous serrated peaks 
and valleys, which may be beautiful, though now they sleep. To the 
left is the village of Uraga, opposite which Commodore Perry anchored, 
with his whole squadron of steamers, on the 7th of July, 1853. Re- 
maining eight days at this place, he was accorded what he first de- 
manded — an interview with, and the reception of President Fillmore's 
letter by, an officer of high rank. After the ceremony, he gave the 
place the name of Reception Bay, which it still retains. Now we pass 
Perry Island, Webster Isle, and, on the opposite side, Cape Saratoga. 
We must not forget, mournful though the thought be, that hereabouts 
beneath us, perhaps under our keel, lies the United States war steam- 
er Oneida, which was run into and sunk by the British mail steamer 
Bombay, January 23d, 1870. This is sad; but the sequel is disgrace- 
ful. Down under the fathoms the Oneida has lain, thus far undis- 
turbed, a rich and grateful Government having failed to trouble itself 
to raise the ship or do honor to the dead. The hulk was put up at 
auction and sold (in 1874), with certain conditions, to a Japanese, for 
fifteen hundred dollars. This is the one sad thought that casts its 
shadow over the otherwise profound memories of which the Gulf of 
Yedo is so suggestive to Americans. The prominent geographical 
points in the bay echo familiar American names, which later geogra- 
phers and a cosmopolitan community have ratified, and which com- 
memorate American genius, skill, a id bloodless victory. 

The ship moves on, and the panoramic landscape unfolds before us. 
In the background of undulating plains, under high and close cultiva- 
tion, and spotted with villages, rise the crumpled backs of many ranges 
of mountains ; while afar off, yet brought delusively near by the clear 
air, sits the queenly mountain in her robes of snow, already wearing 
the morning's crown of light, and her forehead gilded by the first ray 



330 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

of the yet unrisen sun. Beyond her, in the purple air, still glitter the 
jewel stars, while her own bosom trembles through many changes of 
color. Far out at sea, long before land is descried, and from a land 
area of thirteen provinces, the peerless cone is seen and loved. Per- 
haps no view is so perfect, so impressive for a life-time, so well fitted 
to inspire that intense appreciation of nature's masterpieces, whose 
glory and freshness we can feel intensely but once, as is the view of 
Fuji from an incoming steamer. From vast outspread base, through 
mighty curves, sweeping past snow, and up to her summit, the mount- 
ain is visible in queenly solitude and fullness of beauty. Gradually 
the vast form is bathed in light, and the Land of the Rising Sun stands 
revealed in golden glory. It is a joy to have seen it thus at first vision. 
From serene and ancient Fuji, we turn to behold the bustling up- 
start metropolis of the foreigners in Japan, as it appears in full daylight. 
Passing Mississippi Bay and Treaty Point, we arrive in front of what 
was once a little fishing village, but which is now the stately city of 
Yokohama. We count the craft that lie anchored in the harbor. 
From thirty to fifty are usually in port. Steamers from Hakodate, 
Shanghae, and Hong-Kong, and the regular mail steamers from Mar- 
seilles and Southampton, lie at their buoys. Here are wooden war- 
ships and iron-clads, from which fly the British, French, Japanese, 
German, or American flags. A tremendous amount of useless and 
costly saluting is done by these men-of-war, whom the country folks 
call " boom- boom fune." Coal -hulks, store-ships, and all the usual 
evidences of an old harbor, are discovered all around us. The town 
itself seems compactly built of low houses, with tiled roofs. They 
are usually two-storied, though many are, in the language of the East, 
" bungalows," or one-storied dwellings. The foreign settlement seems 
to be arranged on a plain about a mile square. The Japanese town 
spreads out another mile or more to the right. Beyond the plains is 
a sort of semicircle of hills, called "The Bluff." It is covered with 
scores of handsome villas and dwelling-houses, of all sizes and varieties 
of architecture. To the - left the Bluff runs abruptly into the sea. 
To the right it sweeps away to the south-west. In local parlance, the 
various parts of Yokohama are distinguished as " The Bluff," " The Set- 
tlement," and the " Native " or " Japanese " town. Along the water- 
front of the settlement runs a fine, wide, well-paved street, called " The 
Bund," with a stout wall of stone masonry on the water-side. Private 
dwellings, gardens, and hotels adorn it, facing the water. There are as 
yet no docks for the shipping, but there is the English and the French 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 331 

"hatoba." The former consists of a stone breakwater, or piers, rising 
twelve feet or so out of the water, inclosing a large irregular quad- 
rangle, with a narrow entrance at one corner. The land -side of the 
English hatoba is furnished with steps, and a score or more of boats 
can discharge their passengers at once. The French hatoba consists of 
two parallel piers of stone projecting out into the bay. The building 
of most imposing ugliness from the sea-view is the British Consulate, 
and near by it is the American. The Japanese Sai Ban Sho, or Court- 
house, is larger than either of the consulate buildings, and much hand- 
somer. At the other extremity of the settlement, toward the Bluff, 
was the French camp, and near by it the English. Three hundred 
French soldiers guarded as many French civilians resident in Japan, 
and three hundred English marines, who relieved the Tenth British 
foot — the same that served their king on Bunker Hill — were in camp 
in Yokohama in 18*70, and remained until 1875. 

The engines stop, and the great ship lies motionless at her buoy. 
Instantly the crowd of boats which have waited, like hounds in the 
leash, shoot toward the stern ports and gangway, and the steamer be- 
comes walled in. First of all, the United States mail-boat, propelled 
by six native scullers, is flying swiftly shoreward, to satisfy the eager 
souls of the elect with its precious freight. Friends throng on board 
to meet friends. Englishmen ask the news — whether there is to be 
war with Russia ? French and Germans eagerly inquire for the latest 
news from the seat of war. From one, I learn that the Japanese Gov- 
ernment has already issued a proclamation of neutrality, for French 
marines and German sailors have already come to blows in Yokohama. 
Fancy creatures in velvet and diamonds, with gold on their fingers 
and brass in their faces, hasten to see whether any of their guild have 
arrived from San Francisco. 

Leaving deck and cabin, we visit the steerage. The coal-lighters 
are crowded with dirty coolies. They impress us as being the lowest 
of their class. Their clothing is exceedingly scanty. An American 
lady with good eyesight supposed them to be clad in very tight leath- 
er-colored garments. On second sight, wondering at the perfect fit of 
the dress, she found it to be the only clothing which mother Nature 
provides for her children. The proprietors of the native boats have 
entered the ports, and are driving a brisk trade in oranges and various 
articles of diet, precious oniy to Asiatics. Huge dried persimmons, 
which, though shrunken, are four or five inches long, and sake, are 
very salable. A squad of the Chinese, so numerous in Yokohama, are 



332 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

busy in furnishing small change to those who wish to go ashore. Jap- 
anese tempos, and iron and copper cash, are exchanged for American 
dimes, greenbacks, and Mexicans. 

With the kindly aid of a friend, we prepare to go ashore. Safely 
seated in one of the clean unpainted boats, in which we detect no iron, 
but only here and there a cleet of copper, we enjoy the glorious beauty 
of the situation. In the stern stand the two sendos, who make their 
keel glide over the waves as swiftly as a Venetian gondola shoots 
under and out from the Rialto. Already the Japanese boatmen have 
beaten in a race with the American tars. Yonder whizzes a butcher's 
boat, freshly laden from the abattoir below the city. Six naked ath- 
letes of magnificent physique, chanting in wild chorus, urge on their 
craft. 

Sculling is the method invariably in use among the Japanese. The 
long scull consists of two pieces tied together. On the handle is a 
pin, on which a rope is slipped, so that the scull is held down to a 
uniform height while being worked. The blade rests near where it 
joins the stock, on an outrigger pivot. The sweep of the stock, at 
the hand end, is nearly two feet. The sendo, planting his left foot on 
an inclined board, sways his arms and body at right angles to the 
boat, singing meanwhile one of his own songs, in his own way. We 
soon skim over a half-mile of the blue water, pass the United States 
steamer Idaho and the Prussian war-ship Hermann, and, darting within 
the stone piers, land on the hatoba, and are in the mikado's empire. 

The custom-house and the native officials detain us but a few mo- 
ments. Passing out the gate, we receive our first invitation to part 
with some small change from three fat little urchins in curious dress, 
with lion's head and feathers for a cap, and with red streamers hang- 
ing down their backs. They run before us and perform all kinds of 
astonishing tricks, such as carrying their heads beneath their feet, mak- 
ing a ball of themselves, and trundling along, etc. By our financial 
dealings with these little street-tumblers, we learn that " shin jo " means 
" gift," and " arigato " means " thank you," which is the beginning 
of our vocabulary in Japanese. 

The fine wide streets of Yokohama are well paved and curbed. 
The hard white-stone and concrete pavements are able to resist for 
years the rutting action of the sharp-edged wheels of the native carts. 
These wheels are ingeniously constructed, and their felloes are mor- 
tised in segments. They need no tires, and have none. They are 
propelled by four powerful fellows, who work in pairs, and have 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 333 

scarcely more clothing than there is harness on a horse. The fore- 
most pair push with hands and thighs the front cross-bar, behind 
which they stand. The other pair supply the vis a tergo, applying 
their shoulders to a beam which juts out obliquely from beneath and 
behind the cart. The street cries in every country attract first the 




Push-cart in Yokohama. Hokusai. 

new-comer's ears; and. the cry of these cart coolies in Yokohama is 
one of the most peculiar sounds in or out of Japan. I never after- 
ward heard these cries, except in Yokohama and Tokio. While the 
two men in the rear save their wind and vocal force, the iwo foremost 
coolies utter alternately and incessantly a coarse, deep, guttural cry, 
which, if spelling were possible, would be written, " Hai ! huida ! ho ! 
ho ! hai ! huida ! wa ! ho ! ho ! huidah !" etc. I was, at first hearing, 
under the impression that the poor wretches were suffering a grievous 
colic, and a benevolent inclination seized me to buy a few bottles of 
Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, and distribute them on the spot. On 
being told, however, that nothing was the matter with the men, it be- 
ing their custom to yell in this manner, I abandoned my intention. 

Rows of iron lamp-posts, with lanterns and burners trimmed and in 
cleanly readiness, tell of streets well lighted with gas at night. Along 
the avenue, on which stand the British and American consulates on 
one side, and the Japanese court-house, bonded warehouses, and police 
station on the other, are sidewalks, which, along several blocks, are 
thickly planted, in a breadth of ten feet or more, with evergreens and 
flowers. Among these we see the camellias in full bloom. The main 
street crosses this avenue at right angles, extending from the Japanese 

22 



334 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

town to the canal at the foot of The Bluff. The sidewalks on it are 
narrow ; but the street pavements are so hard, and are kept so clean, 
that it is not unpleasant to walk in the street, even in wet weather. 
The streets in the foreign settlement are paved, curbed, and drained. 
Since 1874 they have been lighted with gas, from the gas-works of 
the rich merchant, Takashimaya. 

Here, for the first time, I behold that native Japanese invention, the 
product of a Tokio genius, the jin-riki-sha (man-power carriage). It 
has often been described. It is a baby carriage on adult wheels. It 
holds one or two persons. A man in the shafts pulls it; sometimes 
he is assisted by another from behind. When you wish to go fast, 
you employ two men, or you may drive tandem with three. Many of 
these ska are highly ornamented; for art is appreciated even by the 
lowest classes in Japan, as a residence of five minutes, and afterward 
four years, concur in assuring me. Some are made into the form of a 
boat, with a chanticleer for- a figure-head. Foreigners and natives use 
them, and a wag from Yankee-land has dubbed them " Pull-man cars." 

Main Street is the showiest of all — the Broadway of the " New York 
of Japan." Here we pass fine stone-fronted stores, banks, hotels, and 
restaurants. The magnificent show-windows and abundance of plate- 
glass suggest handsome variety and solid wealth within. These outside 
displays are, in most cases, but true indices of the varied articles of 
merchandise within, which are obtainable at very fair prices. Nothing 
eatable, drinkable, or wearable seems to be lacking to suit the tastes 
or wishes of an ordinary man, beast, or angel ; though we have heard 
that the entire bevy of Miss Flora M'Flimsey's cousins in Yokohama 
assert most strenuously that there is "nothing to wear" at any time. 
Nevertheless, to man or beast, the abundance and variety of feminine 
paraphernalia visible in one of the shops in which angelic robes are 
sold is simply wonderful ; and one notices that the visits of the angels 
to this place are neither few nor far between. Craftsmen in the finer 
arts also get their wealth in Yokohama. Several jewelers display 
tempting wares, and ply a brisk trade. Young Japan wears a watch 
nowadays, and thousands are sold yearly in Yokohama. Barber's poles 
salute us on several streets, and one may be shaved in French, English, 
or Japanese fashion. 

Photographic establishments tempt our eyes and purse with tasteful 
albums of Japanese costume and scenery. First-class eating - saloons 
await their crowds at the hungry hour. The several auction -rooms 
seem to be well filled with native and foreign purchasers. Confection- 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 337 

ers display their bait for the palate. Newspaper offices greet us ; law- 
yers' and doctors' and dentists' signs seem to be sufficiently plentiful. 
Carriages and " traps " add to the bustle, and several knots of Japanese 
farmers, pilgrims, and new-comers from the provinces, staring surpris- 
ingly at the sights they have long heard of, but which they now for 
the first time behold, are met as we pass up the street. French Cath- 
olic or Russian Greek priests in their cassocks, nuns in their black 
robes, well-dressed Chinese, Jews from every nation under heaven, 
French soldiers in blue, British soldiers in red coats, and the talkers 
in a score of different languages, are met with, and help to give the 
town its cosmopolitan character. Main Street, however, is only the 
street of shops, shop-keepers, and the usual vulgar herd. 

Let us turn into the street of " hongs " and " merchants." Be it 
known that in Yokohama, and the Eastern ports generally, the dis- 
tinction between a merchant and a shop-keeper is dire and radical. 
With us lay folk outside of the trading world the difference is small, 
and not always perceptible — a mole - hill, at the least ; but in these 
Eastern ports a great gulf is fixed, socially and commercially, between 
the two castes, and the difference is mountainous. With us, a shop- 
keeper is a man and a brother ; in Yokohama, in the eye of the clubs, 
and with the elect of wealth, fashion, and the professions, he is but a 
heathen and a publican. Advertising, the use of a sign - board, and 
such -like improprieties, are evidences of low caste, and consign the 
offender to the outer darkness, far away from happy club men and 
select visitors. This relic of English caste traditions, rank, and class 
worship is not so strong now as formerly, but is sufficiently potent to 
cause many a bitter pang and many heart-burnings to those who first 
experience it in their new residence in the East. 

The street in which the " hongs," or large business establishments, 
are situated is rather gloomy, when compared with the lively Main 
Street. Most of the buildings are of stone, and many of them are fire- 
proof "godowns," or store - houses. From the windows of the "tea- 
firing godowns" issues the fragrant aroma of the new crop of tea, which 
is being " fired " or dried in deep tin basins, over charcoal fires, by na- 
tive girls and women, preparatory to packing and export. Most of 
the largest and wealthiest business houses are owned and managed 
by those who were among the first -comers to Japan. Many of the 
"hongs" are branches of houses in China, or they themselves have 
agencies at Nagasaki, Hiogo, and ports in China. From five to twenty 
young men form their clerical staff, backed by a small army of native 



338 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

porters, coolies, packers, boatmen, etc. These large firms control near^ 
ly all the export trade of Yokohama, and, indeed, of Japan. The tea, 
silk, copper, rice, etc., is brought from all parts of the country, though 
chiefly from the West and North, and is disposed of by the native 
merchants through brokers and " compradores." In most cases the 
native producer, or even the broker, never sees the foreigner with 
whom he deals. The most important man in many foreign firms, the 
power behind and before the throne, is the " compradore." This su- 
perior being is a Chinaman, who understands enough Japanese, espe- 
cially with the help of the written Chinese character, to deal with the 
Japanese merchant, producer, or broker. He is the provider and pay- 
master of the firm in its dealings with the natives. He arranges, by 
and with the advice of the merchant, the purchase, sale, and delivery 
of merchandise. He hires and pays the Japanese employes, and, being 
the trusted man, is a creature of imposing pretensions, and a quasi- 
partner of the firm. His facilities, opportunities, and never -cloyed 
desire for "squeezes" from his Japanese clients are equally abundant, 
and he lives up to his privileges. Various shifts have been made use 
of by the Japanese merchants to depose this obnoxious middle -man 
from his position, and even to eliminate him entirely from mercantile 
transactions. A bold attempt of this kind was lately made by the 
plucky Governor of Yokohama, Oye Takii ; but, as the manner of the 
attempt was technically illegal, it failed, and matters still remain as 
they were before. 

This aristocratic and highly antiquated form of doing business, in 
which the merchant practically holds himself aloof from his custom- 
ers, is an inheritance from the foreign merchants in the ports of 
China. Ignorant of the language of that country, trusting their 
affairs to a " compradore " who spoke pigeon-English, they lived and 
grew rich, without troubling themselves to learn the language of the 
pig-tails around them. Few of the merchants in Japan, to their dis- 
credit let it be said, have seriously endeavored to master the speech of 
their producers, and, being ignorant of it, the "compradore" is, in 
such a state of things, a necessary evil. This old-fogy method of do- 
ing business must in time give way before the enterprise and energy 
of the younger firms, who refuse to employ " compradores," and the 
members of which are beginning to acquire the language of the people 
with whom they deal. There might have been excuses to the first- 
comers for not learning a language for the acquisition of which no 
teachers or apparatus at that time existed ; but at the present, thanks 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 339 

to American missionaries and the gentlemen of the English civil service, 
an excellent apparatus of grammars, dictionaries, and phrase-books exists. 

The four great steamship agencies at present in Yokohama are the 
American Pacific Mail ; the Oriental and Occidental ; the English Pen- 
insular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company ; and the French Mes- 
sageries Maritime Paquet Postes Francais. The Ocean Steamship Com- 
pany has also an agency here. The native lines of mail steamers Mit- 
sui Bishi (Three Diamonds) also make Yokohama their terminus. 
The coming orthodox bridal tour and round-the-world trip will soon 
be made via Japan first, then Asia, Europe, and America. Already 
the circum-mundane tourists have become so frequent and temporarily 
numerous in Yokohama as to be recognized as a distinct class. In the 
easy language of the port, they are called " globe-trotters." 

The most interesting portion of Yokohama, alike to the new-comer 
and the old resident, is the Bluff. Coming to a port opened primarily 
for trading purposes only, one expects to find shops and store-houses, 
but few anticipate seeing such dwellings and homes as are to be found 
on the Bluff. In the afternoon, when the business of the day is over, 
and the high, grand, and mighty event of the day, the dinner, has not 
yet been consummated, the visitor on the Bluff sees very fine speci- 
mens of horseflesh, good turn-outs, and plenty of pedestrian and eques- 
trian humanity out for fresh air. The trim door-yards, lawns, gardens, 
fences, and hedges help to make a picture of unexpected beauty. The 
villas and dwellings are not high, being bungalows of one story, or 
houses of two stories. Though not remarkable as architectural tri- 
umphs, they are picturesque without, and full of comfort within. 
Added to home attractions, is the ever-present lovely scenery of the 
bay, the distant mountains, the peerless Fuji, and the smiling valleys. 
Nearly all the professional and many of the business men live on the 
Bluff, and, whether from the natural altitude, the inspiring freshness 
of the scenery, or otherwise, the Bluff dwellers are apt to consider 
themselves of a slightly higher social order than the inhabitants of 
the plain. The Bluff spreads over an irregular triangle, and its sur- 
face is rather undulating. Many of the dwellings are snugly embosom- 
ed amidst groves, or on the slopes and in the hollows, but most of 
them crown its spurs and ridges in commanding positions. The le- 
gations of the treaty powers were, until 1874, situated in especially 
choice spots. Strange to say, the foreign diplomatic representatives, 
instead of residing in Tokio, lived at Yokohama, preferring society to 
the doubtful charms of the Japanese capital. 



340 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

My opportune arrival so near New Year's, and the custom of visiting 
being enthusiastically observed, enabled me to see into the homes of 
many old residents, and to meet most of the social magnates and men 
prominent in the diplomatic, literary, commercial, and missionary world. 
Among others, I saw our hospitable American minister, Hon. Charles E. 
De Long, the Dutch, French, and Danish ministers, and several consuls 
and attaches. Mr. Portman, formerly secretary and interpreter to the 
American Legation, one of the valuable and unrewarded servants of our 
Government, was then hale and gray, living alone, not knowing that 
his grave was to be in the Ville du Havre. 

Beside the legations are the fine American hospital, the General 
and British hospitals, and the public gardens. On summer evenings 
one of the bands from the flag-ships stationed in the harbor plays in 
these gardens ; while flower, beast, and bird shows, and various sports 
and amusements, fire-works, etc., are furnished by the most indefatiga- 
ble proprietor that ever catered to public taste. Beyond the " foreign 
concession" of land — that is, outside the limits of foreign dwellings — is 
the race-course, an ample space of ground, leveled, fenced, and furnished 
with buildings and spectators' stands. The races are held during three 
days in spring and autumn, followed invariably by a " Black Monday," 
when bets are paid. An incredible amount of excitement, truly Brit- 
ish, is got up over Oriental horseflesh. The term for an untried 
horse is " griffin." 

A fine new road has been built by the Japanese Government, which 
passes by the race-course, and winds over the hills and down along the 
shores of Mississippi Bay, which is described as " the most beautiful for 
varied scenery in the world." Of course, I am quoting from those who 
speak in the same sense in which a mother speaks when she asserts, 
and really believes, that her babe is the last crowning wonder of the 
universe. Nevertheless, Yokohama numbers among its residents many 
tourists and sometime residents in the Old and New Worlds in many 
habitable latitudes. Their almost unanimous verdict is, that Mississip- 
pi Bay, especially at the sunset and twilight hours, is matchlessly love- 
ly. The New Road, after passing along the beach and through sever- 
al Japanese villages, past rice and wheat fields, and through a beautiful 
valley, rejoins Yokohama at " Legation Bluff." 

Returning from walk or drive, the event of the day, the grand cul- 
minating act of diurnal existence, to which every thing else is but a 
prelude, the dinner, claims the solemn thought and most vigorous fac- 
ulties of mind and body. Whatever else fails, the dinner must be a 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 341 

success. " Life without letters is death," was said by the Romans ; 
but that life without dinners is no life at all, is the solemn conviction 
of most residents in the East. It is further said that a Frenchman 
can cook a dinner as a dinner deserves to be cooked, but only an En- 
glishman can eat it as it ought to be eaten. In Yokohama, dinner is 
the test of success in life. If that momentous feed is successfully 
achieved, sorrow and care are forgotten, the future is hopeful, eternity 
radiant, and the chief end of man is attained. No bolting, no haste, 
no slovenliness in dress, no wishing it over. A dinner to be given 
must be studied and exquisitely planned, as a general plans a battle, 
or a diplomat a treaty. A dinner to be attended must be dressed for, 
anticipated, and rehearsed as a joyful hour on a higher plane of exist- 
ence, or — as an ordeal for which one must be steeled and clad in res- 
ignation. To appreciate the esoteric aesthetics of dinner, and to com- 
prehend the higher law that governs these august events, apart from 
the mere vulgar idea of satisfying hunger, one must be educated by a 
long course of observation and experience. Real enjoyment is doubt- 
less to be obtained at these dinner parties ; but such an idea is not 
necessarily included within the objects sought by an orthodox giver 
of a dinner. There are a great many " brilliant flashes of silence " at 
these dinners, and meditations on crockery are common. Neverthe- 
less, it is really believed that a good dinner is the correct method of 
securing the highest earthly happiness, and is the most common means 
of social enjoyment in Yokohama. 

Being such a cosmopolitan place, the dweller in Yokohama must be 
always vigilant to offend none, and in all the windings of conversation 
must pick his steps, lest he tread on the national, religious, or aesthetic 
corns of his neighbors. What is complimentary to one man may be 
insult to some one else present, and so one becomes schooled to make 
only the correct remark. Though this state of armed neutrality may 
sometimes tend to make conversation excessively stupid, and a mere 
round of dessicated commonplaces, it trains one to be, outwardly at 
least, charitable to all, malicious to none. It keeps one circumspect 
and cosmopolitan, whether in opinions or moral practice ; and to be 
cosmopolitan is to be, in Anglo - Oriental eyes, virtuous beyond vulgar 
conception. 

The predominating culture, thought, manners, dress, and household 
economy in Yokohama, as in all the Eastern ports, is English. Out- 
numbering all the other nationalities, with the Press, the Church, the 
Bar, and the Banks in their own hands; with their ever-present sol- 



342 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

diers and navy ; with their unrivaled civil service, which furnishes so 
many gentlemanly officials; and with most of the business under 
their control, the prevalence of English thought and methods is very 
easily accounted for. Because of the very merits and excellences of 
the genuine Englishman, the American in the East can easily forgive 
the intense narrowness, the arrogant conceit, and, as relates to Ameri- 
can affairs, the ludicrous ignorance and fondly believed perfection of 
knowledge of so many who arrogate to themselves all the insular per- 
fections. Perhaps most of the Englishmen at the East are fair repre- 
sentatives of England's best fruits; but a grievously large number, 
removed from the higher social pressure which was above them, and 
which kept them at their true level in England, find themselves with- 
out that social pressure in the East ; and obeying the " law of press- 
ures," they are apt to become offensively vaporous in their preten- 
sions. These persons are surprised to find even American enterprise 
in the East. They are the most radical and finical concerning every 
idea, custom, ceremony, or social despotism of any kind supposed to 
be English. These men help to form the army of hard-heads and 
civilized boors in Japan, to which our own country furnishes recruits, 
who do so much toward helping the Japanese to carry out in Japan 
their favorite amusement in American hotels, i. e., to descend on an 
elevator ; that is, to lay aside their own dignified politeness, and to 
adopt the rough manners of those who fondly imagine themselves 
the embodiment of the elevating influences of civilization. They are 
the foreigners who believe it their solemn duty, and who make it their 
regular practice, to train up their native servant "boys" in the way 
they should go by systematic whippings, beatings, and applications of 
the boot. Fearful of spoiling cook, boy, or " betto " (hostler), they 
spare neither fist, boot, nor cane. In this species of brutality we be- 
lieve the vulgar John Bulls to be sinners above all the foreigners in 
the East. I saw enough in one day to explain why so many of their 
nationality have felt the vengeful swords of Japanese samurai. Al- 
though Americans sometimes are swift-footed to follow the example 
of Englishmen, yet it is usually acknowledged by the Japanese them- 
selves that the Americans, as a class of that heterogeneous collection 
of men, who are all alike to them in being foreigners, are more in- 
clined to give them their rights, and to treat them as equals. 

Be it remembered that in these remarks we do not refer to that 
large body of educated, refined, and true-hearted Englishmen who 
have been such a potent influence in the civilization of Japan. It 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAFAN. 343 

must be confessed, and we cheerfully bear witness to what is a fact, 
that the predominating good influence in Japan is English. Some of 
the most prominent and most highly trusted foreign officials of the 
Japanese Government are English. The navy, the railways, the tele- 
graphs, public works, and light -houses are managed by them almost 
exclusively, and a large part, if not most, of the business of the coun- 
try is in their hands. Some of the very best, and perhaps the majori- 
ty, of lay students of, and scholars in, the Japanese language are En- 
glishmen. For all that goes to refine, elevate, and purify society among 
foreigners we are largely indebted to the English. In my strictures, I 
refer to that numerous class in Japan who, with pecuniary power and 
social influence far above that they could gain at home, ape the man- 
ners and succeed in copying the worst faults of the better class of 
their countrymen. Living among a people capable of teaching them 
good manners, and yet ignorant alike of their history, language, insti- 
tutions, and codes of honor and morals, they regard them as so many 
chattering silk -worms, tea -plants, and tokens of copper. They are 
densely ignorant of every thing outside of England, and with unruffled 
stupidity they fail to conceive how any good thing can come out of a place 
not included within the little island from which they came. I should 
feel very glad if none of my countrymen answered to this description. 
It is to be regretted that the British and American should be so 
often pitted together ; but so long as fair play, chivalric honor, cosmo* 
politan breadth of mind, and Christian courtesy are left us, we think 
the rivalry must be productive of immense good. Like flint and steel, 
before the dead cold mass of Asiatic despotism, superstition, and nar- 
rowness, it must result in kindling many a good spark into flames of 
progress and knowledge. Whatever be their petty differences, the 
English and American ever strike hands for good purposes more 
quickly than any other two nationalities in Japan ; and before the 
men of every other nation the American finds more to love, to honor, 
and to admire in the Englishman. It is the two nations cemented in- 
separably together by the blood, religion, language, history, inherit- 
ance, and the love of liberty and law, that are to impress their char- 
acter and civilization on the millions of Asia, and to do most toward 
its regeneration. Let every pen and tongue forbear to needlessly irri- 
tate, or do aught to sunder the ties that bind together the two great 
civilizing powers of the world ; but as for the social bigot, the Philis- 
tine, the bully, let not his disgraced nationality shield him from the 
social exile and public contempt which he deserves. 



344 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Yokohama is fervently believed by many new-comers, especially 
those who are soon discovered to be either verdant or genuine fools, 
to be the very worst place in the world for iniquity, gossip, and all 
manner of rascality. In this they most clearly mistake. Since the 
same reputation attaches to at least a thousand places, I think the er- 
ror lies in a defect in the mental vision of the new-comer. Some tem- 
porary attack of moral color-blindness, strabismus, or disarrangement 
of the moral lenses, must be the cause of such an erroneous opinion. 
Long residents and traveled men agree in the belief that the moral 
status of Yokohama is fully equal to most other ports in the East, if 
not in the world. Some optimists even hold the opinion that it is 
better than many other places that boast loudly of their morals. Cer- 
tain it is that gambling hells have been purged away. Rum " mills " 
and lewd houses, though numerous enough, are not more common than 
in other ports. The white woman in scarlet drives her carriage on the 
Bluff and in the town, but her sisters are not abnormally numerous. 
Where heathen women are cheap, and wives from home are costly, 
chastity is not a characteristic trait of the single men ; but the same 
evil and the same resultant curse rests on all such places where " Chris- 
tians " live side by side with " pagans." Given a superior race with 
superior resources, and poor natives who love money more than virtue, 
and the same state of things results. 

Missionaries abound in Yokohama, engaged in the work of teaching, 
and converting the natives to the various forms of the Christian re- 
ligion. It is a little curious to note the difference in the sentiment 
concerning missionaries on different sides of the ocean. Coming from 
the atmosphere and influences of the Sunday-school, the church, and 
the various religious activities, the missionary seems to most of us an 
exalted being, who deserves all honor, respect, and sympathy. Ar- 
rived among the people in Asiatic ports, one learns, to his surprise, 
that the missionaries, as a class, are " wife -beaters," "swearers," "li- 
ars," " cheats," " hypocrites," " defrauders," " speculators," etc., etc. 
He is told that they occupy an abnormally low social plane, that they 
are held in contempt and open scorn by the " merchants," and by so- 
ciety generally. Certain newspapers even yet love nothing better than 
to catch any stray slander or gossip concerning a man from whom 
there is no danger of gunpowder or cowhide. Old files of some of 
the newspapers remind one of an entomological collection, in which 
the specimens are impaled on pins, or the store-house of that celebra- 
ted New Zealand merchant who sold " canned missionaries." Some 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAX. 345 

of the most lovely and lofty curves ever achieved by the nasal orna- 
ments of pretty women are seen when the threadbare topic of mission- 
ary scandal is introduced. The only act approaching to cannibalism 
is when the missionary is served up whole at the dinner-table, and his 
reputation devoured. The new-comer, thus suddenly brought in con- 
tact with such new and startling opinions, usually either falls in w T ith 
the fashion, and adopts the opinions, the foundation for which he has 
never examined, or else sets to work to find out how much truth there 
is in the scandals. A fair and impartial investigation of facts usually 
results in the conviction that some people are very credulous and ex- 
cessively gullible in believing falsehoods. 

Scarcely one person in a hundred of those who so freely indulge in, 
and so keenly enjoy, the gossip and scandal about missionaries, realizes 
their need of human sympathy, or shows that fair play which teaches 
us that they are but human beings like ourselves. The men of busi- 
ness and leisure for every thing except their tongues are utterly un- 
able to understand the missionary's life, work, or purpose. Apart from 
the fact that a man who strives to obey the final and perhaps most 
positive command of the Great Founder of Christianity, to preach the 
Gospel to every creature, should win respect so far as he obeys that 
command, it is also most happily true that some of the very best, most 
conscientious, though quiet, work in the civilization of Japan has been 
done by missionaries. They were the first teachers ; and the first 
counselors whose advice was sought and acted upon by the Japanese 
were missionaries, and the first and ripest fruits of scholarship — the 
aids to the mastery of the Japanese language — were and are the work 
of missionaries. The lustre shed upon American scholarship by mis- 
sionaries in China and Japan casts no shadow, even in the light of the 
splendid literary achievements of the English civil service. Besides 
this, a community in which the lives of the majority are secretly or 
openly at variance with the plainest precepts of the Great Master can 
not, even on general principles, be expected to sympathize very deeply 
with, or even comprehend, the efforts of men who are social heretics. 
It is hard to find an average " man of the world " in Japan who has 
any clear idea of what the missionaries are doing or have done. Then 
dense ignorance borders on the ridiculous. 

On the other hand, a few, very few, who call themselves missiona- 
ries are incompetent, indiscreet, fanatical, and the terror even of their 
good and earnest brethren. 

At present, in Yokohama, there are the edifices of the Established 



346 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

English Episcopal, the French Catholic, the Union Protestant, and 
native Christian churches. There is also a Jewish congregation. Be- 
sides the Governmental, the private Japanese, and the General Hospital 
of the foreigners, there is a Ladies' Benevolent Society. A well-kept 
and neatly laid out and ornamented cemetery, beautifully situated on 
the slope of the Bluff, in which sleep the men of many creeds and na- 
tions, tells many a sad tale of assassination, of murder, and of battle, 
which took place before the present peaceful residence of the Western 
strangers in Japan was won. The Russians, the Dutch, the English, 
and the French compelled the Japanese Government to build the tombs 
of the slain. Many a mother's darling, many a gallant soldier and 
sailor, who met his death from disease, accident, drowning, or excess, 
and many a broken-hearted exile lies here ; and more than one visit to 
this sad city of the dead has impressed me with the truth that most of 
the epitaphs are plain historical facts, free from sham and fulsome 
falsehood ; as though being free from the meretricious ornament that 
so often miserably accords with the blunt fact of death, the tombs 
had won the rare adornment of simple truth. 

From the Yokohama of to-day, with its bustling energies, and old 
enough in its new life to have its cemetery, we shall glance at Yoko- 
hama as it was from its forgotten beginning, centuries ago, until a.d. 
1854, when a fleet of American steamers began the first epoch in the 
new life of Japan. 

On a small arm of the Gulf of Yedo, midway between its mouth 
and the capital of the empire, stood an insignificant little fishing vil- 
lage. Evidently it never possessed sufficient importance to be men- 
tioned, except casually, by Japanese historians or travelers. In its best 
days prior to 1854, it might have numbered a thousand inhabitants. 
Nearly all the men were fishers, or worked with the women in the rice 
swamps surrounding the village on all sides, and stretching toward the 
base of the Bluff. The great highway to Yedo passed through the 
town of Kanagawa, which lies on the opposite shore of the bay. Most 
probably from this fact, the village which supplied the travelers on 
the great road with fish was called Yokohama ( Yoko, across ; hama, 
strand). For centuries the simple inhabitants swept the sea with their 
nets, dug their mud swamps, planted their rice, eat their rude fare, 
lived their monotonous life, and died in the faith of Buddha and the 
hope of Nirvana. No seer ever prophesied greatness of Yokohama, 
but some places, like men, have greatness thrust upon them. When, 
on the evening of the 7th of July, 1853, the fleet of huge American 



FIRST GLIMrSES OF JAPAN. 347 

steamers lay at anchor abreast of Uraga, a few miles distant, and the 
people of Yokohama saw the blazing beacon- fires and heard the breath- 
less messengers tell the tale of the wondrous apparition of mighty 
ships moving swiftly without wind, tide, or oars, the first pulses of a 
new life stirred within them as they talked that night before their 
huts in the sultry evening. Their idea of a steamer, as I have heard 
it from their own lips, was, that these Western foreigners, who were 
not men, but half beasts, half sorcerers, had power to tame a volcano, 
condense its power in their ships, and control it at will. That night, 
as the spark-spangled clouds of smoke pulsed out of the fire-breathing 
smoke-stacks of the steamers, which were kept under steam in readi- 
ness for attack, many an eager prayer, prompted by terror at the aw- 
ful apparition, went up from the hearts of the simple people, who anx- 
iously awaited the issue of the strange visit. 

During all the eight days during which Commodore Perry's fleet 
lay at anchor, or steamed at will over their sacred waters, the* survey- 
ing boats were busy extorting the secrets of the water, its danger and 
its depth. No drunken sailor roamed on the land, none of the quiet 
natives were beaten, robbed, or molested. The mighty mind of the 
gentle commodore extended to the humblest minutiae of discipline, and 
his all-comprehending genius won victory without blood. The natives 
had opportunity of gaining clearer ideas as to what sort of beings the 
strange visitors were. In those eight days even the proudest samurai 
were convinced of the power of the Western nations. Familiarity 
bred no contempt of American prowess, while for the first time they 
saw their own utterly defenseless condition. After delivering the let- 
ter with the proper pomp and ceremony to the high Japanese com- 
missioner at Uraga, and having for the first time in history gained 
several important points of etiquette in a country where etiquette is 
more than law or morals, the consummate diplomat and warrior, Per- 
ry, sailed away with his fleet July 17th, 1853. 

Commodore M. C. Perry inaugurated a policy in his dealings with 
the Japanese which all thoroughly successful foreigners in Japan have 
found the safest, quickest, and most certain means of success, in deal- 
ing with them, in order to win new concessions, or to lead them to 
higher reforms. Instead of demanding an immediate answer, he al- 
lowed them seven months to consider the matter, promising them at 
the end of that time to come again. During that period the authori- 
ties had time to consult, reflect, and to smoke an unlimited number 
of pipes, and all of these they did. 



348 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

When Perry, with an augmented fleet of nine steamers, returned 
again in February, the Japanese found him as punctilious, polite, per- 
severing, considerate, and as inflexibly firm as ever. Instead of mak- 
ing the treaty at Uraga, he must make it nearer Yedo. Yokohama 
was the chosen spot, and there, on the 8th of March, 1854, were ex- 
changed the formal articles of convention between the United States 
and Japan. Then followed the interchange of presents. The minia- 
ture telegraph was set up on shore over a space of one mile, and was 
worked for several days to the delight and wonder of admiring Japa- 
nese officials. The Lilliputian locomotive and train of cars caused un- 
bounded interest. American implements and mechanism of all de- 
scriptions were presented as evidences of American peace and good- 
will. Matthew Calbraith Perry achieved a triumph grander in results 
than his brother, Oliver Hazard Perry, on Lake Erie. He had met 
the enemy, and they were his friends. The Japanese returned the 
gifts with their best native productions, and amused their guests with 
wrestling matches. 

By the treaty of Yokohama, Hakodate in Yezo, and Shimoda in 
Idzu, were opened as ports of supply to the Americans. Shimoda, 
before it fairly began to be of much service, was visited by a terrific 
earthquake and tidal wave, that hurled a Russian frigate to destruc- 
tion, overwhelmed the town, sweeping back by its recession into the 
boiling ocean scores of houses, and about one hundred human beings. 
The effluent wave plowed the harbor with such force that all the mud 
was scoured from the rocky bed. The anchors of ships could obtain 
no grip on the bare, slippery rock bottom, and Shimoda, being useless 
as a harbor, was abandoned. The ruin of Shimoda was the rise of 
Yokohama. By a new treaty, and concessions gained from the Japa- 
nese by Hon. Town send Harris, Kanagawa (three miles across the 
bay from Yokohama) and Nagasaki were made open ports, not only 
of entry, but of trade and commerce. By the terms of the treaty, 
Kanagawa was opened July 1st, 1859. 

Kanagawa is situated on the western side of the Bay of Yedo, about 
sixteen miles from the capital. Through it passes the great highway 
of the empire, along which the proud daimios and their trains of re- 
tainers were continually passing on their way to and from the capital. 
These belligerent young bloods were spoiling for war, and a trial of 
their blades on the hated hairy foreigners ! Had Kanagawa been 
made a foreign settlement, its history would doubtless have had many 
more bloody pages of incendiaries and assassination than did Yoko- 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN. 349 

hama. Foreseeing this, even though considered by the foreign minis- 
ters a violation of treaty agreements, the Japanese Government chose 
Yokohama as the future port, and immediately set to work to render 
it as convenient as possible for trade, residence, and espionage. They 
built a causeway, nearly two miles long, across the lagoon and marshes 
from Kanagawa, so as to make it of easy access. They built the solid 
granite piers or " hatobas," which we have described, erected a custom- 
house and officers' quarters, and prepared small dwellings and store- 
houses for the foreign merchants. 

Before the opening of the harbor, several ships, with the pioneers of 
trade on board, lay in the harbor from Nagasaki and China, " eager to 
try the new port, and, of course, clamorous for instant accommodation 
and facilities." The merchants insisted on Yokohama, the ministers 
and consuls were determined on Kanagawa. The strife between the 
two parties lasted long, and left many roots of bitterness that are not 
yet entirely grubbed up ; but the merchants carried their point — as is 
believed by all to-day — to the advantage of foreign influence in Japan. 
The red tape which helps to weave a net of misleading and inaccurate 
statements in regard to Japan is not yet cut, as regards Kanagawa. 
We frequently read of the United States Consul and Consulate at 
Kanagawa. There has been neither there since 1861. Both are in 
Yokohama. Baron Hubner's statement that Sir R. Alcock was " the 
official founder of Yokohama" is a ramble round the truth. Yoko- 
hama was settled in a squatter-like and irregular manner, and the ill 
effects of it are seen to this day. When compared with Shanghae, 
the foreign metropolis of China, it is vastly inferior to that "model 
settlement." To abridge a tedious story, the straggling colony of 
diplomats, missionaries, and merchants at Kanagawa finally pulled up 
their stakes and joined the settlement at Yokohama. The town grew 
slowly at first. Murders and assassinations of foreigners by the ruffian 
patriots who bravely attacked unarmed foreigners, usually from be- 
hind, were frequent during the first few years. The intermeddling of 
Japanese officials threatened to paralyze trade. The lion of civilization 
was threatened with death in a gigantic net-work of red-tape, in the 
length, redness, strength, and quantity of which the bakufu excelled 
the world. The first foreigners were not specially noted for good 
morals, sensitive consciences, sweetness of temper, nor for a hatred of 
filthy lucre, and the underhand cunning and disregard for truth which 
seems a part of official human nature in Japan (only ?) were matched 
by the cold-blooded villainy and trickery of the unprincipled foreign- 

23 



350 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ers of all creeds and nationalities. A favorite threat of atrabilious 
Frenchmen, blustering Russians, and petty epaulet-wearers of all sorts, 
when their demands were refused, was to strike their flag, go on board 
a man-of-war, and blow up the native town. Yokohama still stands, 
having survived bombardments in five languages. The Japanese offi- 
cials became so accustomed to this polyglot snobbery, that they ceased 
to regard its monotonous recurrence with feelings different from those 
evoked on beholding snuff-boxes drawn, or on hearing the terrific 
crash that followed. 

A less congenial and more expensive employment, at which native 
officials were kept busy, was the payment of outrageously unjust " in- 
demnities " — a euphemism for civilized theft. A conflagration caused 
by a kitchen fire, a drunken squabble, an insult resulting in the death 
of a white -faced villain, terminated in the inevitable and exorbitant 
mulct. A sailor found dead drunk in the streets was the signal for 
sending up the price of revolvers one hundred per cent. Every for- 
eign suicide was heralded as an " assassination." 

A fire (November 22d, 1866), which laid nearly the whole foreign 
town in ashes, seemed to purify the place municipally, commercially, 
and morally. The settlement was rebuilt in a more substantial and 
regular manner. Banks, newspaper offices, hospitals, post-offices, and 
consulate buildings re-appeared as with new life. The streets were 
graded, paved, and curbed. The swamp was filled up. The Japanese 
village of Homura was removed across the creek. Fire companies 
were organized. A native police force was formed. The European 
steamships began to come to Yokohama, and the establishment of the 
Pacific Mail line of steamers, running monthly between San Francisco 
and Yokohama, was the final master-stroke that removed the future 
prosperity of Yokohama from the region of surmise to that of cer- 
tainty. Other steamers plied to Japanese and Chinese ports. Trade 
became firmly established. Missionaries unlocked the language, and 
made it acquirable. The settlement was purged of roughs and gam- 
blers. The amenities of social life began to appear, as ladies and chil- 
dren came in scores. Houses became homes. The solitary were set 
in families. Churches appeared with their beneficent influence. The- 
atres, concerts, and operettas gave recreation to the mind ; while row- 
ing, racing, athletic, cricket, and racket clubs, and clubs gastronomic 
and sociable, made the life of the bachelors less monotonous. Rifle 
companies kept the eye and hand in practice for the occasional hunts 
when game was plenty. The telegraph to Tokio and thence around 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN: 351 

the globe was opened and used. The railway to the capital, with its 
ten trains daily, became a familiar fact. Schools for children were es- 
tablished. The Eurasian children were gathered up by American la- 
dies and French nuns, to be reared in purity. Christian hymns were 
translated into Japanese, and sung to the tunes of Lowell and Brad- 
bury by native children. Teachers of music and languages sent out 
their circulars. The Sunday-school opened its doors. The family 
physician took the place of the navy surgeon. Yokohama now boasts 
of the season, like London. The last slow growth of such a colony — 
the Asiatic Society, established for the encouragement of original re- 
search, and for the collection of information concerning the history, 
language, geography, and antiquity of Japan and parts adjacent — has 
been established. It has already done much excellent work, and, 
though in a trading community, hopes to live. 

I have neither time nor space to speak of the wonders wrought in 
the Japanese town ; nor can I tell the story of how a fishing village 
of a thousand souls has become a city of fifty thousand people, with 
its streets lighted with gas ; rich stores, piled with silk, tea, bronzes, 
and curios of all kinds — whither tourists flock, and naval officers mort- 
gage their pay for months to come : Japanese curios are as powerful 
as mercury to attract gold. The railway and station, the many promis- 
ing industries of all kinds, the native hospital, printing-offices, etc., 
etc., deserve description, but I must close this already tedious chapter 
by a summary of a few items of interest not referred to before. 

At present (1876) the foreign population of Yokohama is reckoned 
to be about twelve hundred residents, of both sexes and all ages. The 
men of the merchant marine, sailors, officers, on shore and ship duty, 
and temporary dwellers, make up a fluctuating population, which is 
seldom less than three and sometimes as many as six thousand. The 
Chinese population may number one thousand in Yokohama, and 
twenty-five hundred in Japan. In their hands are the deep things 
of finance. All the money-changers and brokers are Chinese, and 
any unexpected fluctuations in the money market are laid to their 
charge. Those who are not brokers are " compradores," clerks, or 
useful artisans. As a class, they form the most industrious national- 
ity in Japan. They have their temple, cemetery, guilds, and benevo- 
lent association, but no consul or mandarin to protect or to grind 
them. The sight of the fat, well-dressed, cleanly Chinese, so well-oiled 
in his disposition and physique, so defiantly comfortable in his dress, 
forces a contrast between him and the Japanese. Some people con- 



352 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

sider the Chinaman as the man of superior race. In Yokohama's 
heterogeneous collection of humanity are several score of children in 
whose veins flows the blood of two continents. The Eurasian chil- 
dren, when illegitimate, are still citizens of Japan, in the eye of Japa- 
nese law ; but when born in wedlock, are citizens of the same country 
with their father. By the laws of Japan, marriage between Japanese 
and foreigners is perfectly legal, and several such marriages have been 
regularly contracted and solemnized. 

The Fourth Estate in Yokohama is a vast one. The English papers 
are, The Japan Herald ; The Japan Mail, daily and weekly; The 
Japan Gazette, daily. All these papers issue also a fortnightly or 
monthly mail summary. The French paper, IS Echo du Japon, is a 
daily. The Far East is a semi-monthly large pamphlet, of twelve 
pages, photographically illustrated, with letter -press descriptive of 
scenes and incidents in Japan. The Japan Punch, which hits the 
folly and furnishes the fun for the Yokohama public, is printed by 
lithography, and is a clever monthly production. 

Toward the future Yokohama may look cheerfully and with hope. 
So near the great capital, practically on the high-road of the empire, 
with a magnificent harbor, capable of unlimited improvements, with 
railroad and telegraphic facilities already in use, Yokohama's future 
must be one of steady prosperity. When Kobe was opened, bold 
prophets predicted the waning of Yokohama; but their prophecies 
have long since been forgotten. New land is being reclaimed from 
the lagoons toward Kanagawa, and in time Kanagawa and Yokohama 
will be one city. The foreign population may not increase according 
to the New World ratio, but from all parts of the Sea Empire shall 
come the wealth and the sinew, the brain and the heart of New Ja- 
pan, to learn the sources of the power and superiority of the West- 
erns ; and, returning, the fathers shall teach their children to be wiser 
than they. Whatever be the changes of the future, Yokohama must 
continue to be the master-teacher and exemplar for good and evil of 
the civilization of Christendom in New Japan. 

[The tourist in port who desires to enjoy the scenery and people, and visit 
some of the places and monuments of historic interest around Yokohama and 
Tokio, will be greatly aided by three little manuals published by the author, and 
to be found in Yokohama. They are " The Yokohama Guide," p. 39, with map ; 
"The Tokio Guide," p. 35; and "Map of Tokio, with Notes Historical and Ex- 
planatory." These little pamphlets contain skeleton trips, hints to travelers, 
notes of information, and a short vocabulary, with pronunciation of the Japanese 
words most needed by a tourist. On Japanese "Pigeon-English," see a pam- 
phlet entitled " Exercises in the Yokohama Dialect."] 



A. RIDE ON THE TOKAIDO. 353 



II. 

A SIDE ON THE TOKAIDO. 

January 2d, 1871. — A frosty morning. Air keen, bracing, razor- 
like. Sky stainlessly clear. The Bay of Yedo glinting with unnum- 
bered sunbeams. Blue sky, blue water, blue mountains, white Fuji. 

The Yankee has invaded the Land of the Gods. He jostles the 
processions of the lords of the land. He runs a coach on the great 
highway, so sacred to daimios and two-sworded samurai. Here on the 
Bund stands the stage that will carry a man to the capital for two 
Mexican dollars. Of the regulation Yankee pattern, it is yet small, 
and, though seating three persons besides the driver, can crowd in five 
when comfort is not the object in view. A pair of native ponies on 
which oats are never wasted make the team. A betto (running foot- 
man and hostler), whose business is to harness the animals, yell at the 
people on the road, and be sworn at, perches, like a meditative chick- 
en, by one foot on the iron step. As for the driver, an Australian, 
who is recommended as " a very devil of a whip," he impresses me at 
once as being thoroughly qualified to find the bottom of a tumblerfui 
of brandy without breathing. 

He is not only an expert at driving and drinking, but such an adept 
in the theology of the bar-room is he, and so well versed in orthodox 
profanity, that the heathen betto regards his master as a safe guide, 
and imitates him with conscientious accuracy. The driver converts 
the pagan better than he knows. Indeed, it is astonishing what prog- 
ress his pupil has made in both theology and the English language. 
He has already at his tongue's end the names and attributes of the 
entire Trinity. 

Crack goes the whip, and we rattle along the Bund, past the Club- 
house, around the English consulate, past the Perry treaty grounds, 
and down Benten dori, through the native town. The shops are just 
opening, and the shop-boys are looping up the short curtains that hang 
before each front. The bath-houses begin business early. The door 
of one is shunted aside, spite of the lowness of the thermometer and 



354 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



decency. Out steps a man into the street as naked as when he step 
ped out into the world. His native copper hue, like a lobster's, is in- 
tensified by the boiling he has just undergone. He walks in a self- 
exhaling cloud of auroral vapors, like a god in ambrosia. He deigns 
not to make his toilet while in sight, but proceeds homeward, clothes 
in hand. My pocket Fahrenheit marks four degrees below the freez- 
ing-point. 

Our driver whips up the horses for sheer warmth, and we dash over 
the " iron bridge." A trifling bit of iron to our foreign eyes, but a 
triumph of engineering to the natives, who build of wood. We pass it, 
and then we are on the causeway that connects Yokohama with the 
great main road of the empire, the Tokaido. The causeway passed, 
and with foreign sights behind, real Japan appears. I am in a new 
world, not the Old. Every thing is novel. I should like to be Argus : 
not less than a hundred eyes can take in all the sight. I should like 
to be a poet to express, and an artist to paint all I see. I wish I knew 
the language, to ask questions. 

What a wonderful picture-book ! A line of villages are strung along 
the road, like a great illuminated scroll full of gay, brilliant, merry, sad, 

disgusting, horrible, curious, funny, de- 
lightful pictures. 

What pretty children ! Chubby, rosy, 
sparkling-eyed. The cold only made 
their feet pink, and their cheeks red. 
How curiously dressed, with coats like 
long wrappers, and long, wide, square 
sleeves, which I know serve for pock- 
ets, for I just saw a boy buy some rice 
cracknels, hot from the toasting coals, 
and put them in his sleeves. A girdle 
three inches wide binds the coat tight 
to the waist. The children's heads are 
shaved in all curious fashions. The 
way the babies are carried is an im- 
provement upon the Indian fashion. 
The Japanese ko is the papoose re- 
versed. He rides eyes front, and sees 




= — -.c^© 5 ^ 



YouugGirlcanyiugherBabyBrother. ^ ^^ ^ ^ mother , s shoulder . 

Japanese babies are lugged pickapack. Baby Gohachi is laid on 
mamma's back and strapped on, or else he is inclosed in her gar- 



A RIDE ON THE TO RAID 0. 



355 



ment, and only his little shaven noddle protrudes behind his mother's 
neck. His own neck never gets wrenched off, and often neither head 
nor tiny toes are covered, though water is freezing. In the picture on 
the preceding page, the fat-cheeked baby is carried by a young, un- 
married girl, as I can tell by the way her hair is dressed. It is prob- 
ably an elder sister or hired servant. Her bare feet are on wooden 
clogs. 

Here are adults and children running around barefoot. Nobody 
wears any hats. As for bonnets, a Japanese woman might study a 
life-time, and go crazy in trying to find out its use. Every one wears 
cotten clothes, and these of only one or two thicknesses. None of the 
front doors are shut. All the shops are open. We can see some of 
the people eating their breakfast — beefsteaks, hot coffee, and hot roils 
for warmth ? No : cold rice, pickled radishes, and vegetable messes 
of all unknown sorts. These we see. They make their rice hot by 
pouring tea almost boiling over it. A few can afford only hot water. 
Some eat millet instead of rice. Do they not understand dietetics or 
hygiene better ? Or is it poverty ? Strange people, these Japanese ! 
Here are large round ovens full of sweet-potatoes being steamed or 
roasted. A group of urchins are 
waiting around one shop, grown 
men around another, for the luxury. 
Twenty cash, one-fifth of a cent, in 
iron or copper coin, is the price of a 
good one. , Many of the children, 
just more than able to walk them- 
selves, are saddled with babies. They 
look like two-headed children. The 
fathers of these youngsters are cool- 
ies or burden - bearers, who wear a 
cotten coat of a special pattern, and 
knot their kerchiefs over their fore- 
heads. These heads of families re- 
ceive wages of ten cents a day when 
work is steady. Here stands one with 
his shoulder - stick (tembimbo) with 
pendant baskets of plaited rope, like 
a scale-beam and pans. His shoul- Coolie waiting tar a Job. 

der is to be the fulcrum. On his daily string of copper cash he sup- 
ports a family. The poor man's blessings and the rich man's grief 




356 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

are the same in every clime. In Japan the quiver of poverty is full, 
while the man of wealth mourns for an heir. The mother bears the 
bairns, but the children carry them. Each preceding child, as it grows 
older, must lug the succeeding baby on its back till able to stand. The 
rearing of a Japanese poor family is a perpetual game of leap-frog. 

The houses are small, mostly one story, all of them of wood, except 
the fire -proof mud -walled store -houses of the merchant. Most are 
clean inside. The floors are raised a foot above the ground, covered 
with mats. The wood-work is clean, as if often scrubbed. Yet the 
Japanese have no word for soap, and have never until these late days 
used it. Nevertheless, they lead all Asiatics in cleanliness of persons 
and dwellings. Does not an ancient stanza of theirs declare that 
" when the houses of a people are kept clean, be certain that the gov- 
ernment is respected and will endure?" Hot water is the detergent, 
and the normal Japanese gets under it at least once a day. For scrub- 
bing the floor or clothes, alkali, obtained by leeching ashes, is put in 
the water. 

The shop-keeper sits on his hams and heels, and hugs his hibachi 
(fire-bowl). What shivering memories I have of it ! Every Japanese 
house has one or more. It is a box of brass, wood, or delf. In a bed 
of ashes are a handful of coals. Ordinarily it holds the ghost of a 
fire, and radiates heat for a distance of six inches. A thermo-multi- 
plier might detect its influence further on a cold day. With this the 
Japanese warm their houses, toast their fingers for incredibly long 
spaces of time, and even have the hardihood to ask you to sit down 
by it and warm yourself ! Nevertheless, when the coals are piled up 
regardless of expense, a genial warmth may be obtained. The shop- 
keepers seem to pay much more attention to their braziers than to 
their customers. What strikes one with the greatest surprise is the 
baby-house style and dimensions of every thing. The rice-bowls are 
tea-cups, the tea-cups are thimbles, the tea-pot is a joke. The family 
sit in a circle at meals. The daughter or house-maid presides at the 
rice-bucket, and paddles out cupfuls of rice. 

We pass through Kanagawa, a flourishing town, and the real treaty 
port, from which Yokohama has usurped foreign fame and future his- 
tory. We pass many shops, and learn in a half-hour the staple articles 
of sale, which we afterward find repeated with little variation in the 
shops all over the country. They are not groceries, or boots, or jewelry, 
nor lacquer, bronze, or silk. They are straw-sandals, paper umbrellas, 
rush hats, bamboo-work of all kinds, matting for coats, flint, steel and 



A RIDE ON THE TO RAID 0. 



357 



tinder, sulphur splints for matches, oiled paper coats, and grass cloaks, 
paper for all purposes, wooden clogs for shoes : fish and radish knives, 
grass-hooks, hoes, scissors with two blades but only one handle, and 
axes, all of a strange pattern, compose the stock of cutlery. Vegeta- 
ble and fish shops are plentiful, but there is neither butcher nor 
baker. Copper and brass 
articles are numerous in the 
braziers' shops. 

In the cooper shops, the 
dazzling array of wood-work, 
so neat, fresh, clean, and fra- 
grant, carries temptation into 
housekeepers' pockets. I 
know an American lady who 
never can pass one without 
buying some useful utensil. 
There are two coopers pound- 
ing lustily away at a great 
rain-tank, or sake-vat, or soy- 
tub. They are more intent 
on their bamboo hoops, bee- 
tles, and wedges than on their 
clothing, which they have 
half thrown off. One has 
his kerchief over his shoul- 
der. 

In Japan the carpenter is 
the shoe -maker, for the foot-gear is of wood, 
weaves the head-dress. Hats and boots are not, 
is called a " roof " or " shed." I remember how in America I read 
of gaudily advertised "Japanese boot-blacking," and " Japanese corn- 
files." I now see that the Japanese wear no boots or shoes, hence 
blacking is not in demand ; and as such plagues as corns are next 
to unknown, there is no need of files for such a purpose. The total 
value of the stock in many of the shops appears to be about five 
dollars. Many look as if one " clean Mexican " would buy their 
stock, good -will, and fixtures. I thought, in my innocence, that I 
should find more splendid stores elsewhere. I kept on for a year 
or more thinking so, but was finally satisfied of the truth that, if 
the Japanese are wealthy, they do not show it in their shops. The 




Coopers hooping a Vat. 



(By a pupil of Hokusai.) 

The basket -maker 
The head-covering 



358 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

prosaic truth is that the people are very poor. Of course, being fresh 
from the splendor of the fine young fellows, the "princes" of the 
newspapers, in America, who. were noted for their impressive ward- 
robe, dazzling jewelry, hotel-bills, and carriages, I could not believe the 
truth about Japan then. My glamoured eyes refused to see it. " I 
shall see the wealth, but not now," was my thought. 

Tugging up the steep hill and past Kanagawa, we dash over the 
splendid road beneath an arch of pines, some grandly venerable, some 
augustly tall, some like a tottering empire, glorious in decay, but many 
more scraggy and crooked. We pass all kinds of dress and charac- 
ters on the road. Now, our betto yells out to a merchant, who ambles 
along with a pack on his back tied over his neck. Our driver prays 
his God to damn some poor old priest who was not as nimble as he 
might have been forty years ago. Anon, the exponent of Christian 
civilization informs a farm laborer, trudging along, hoe on shoulder, 
that he will " cut the d — d face off him" if he isn't spry. A gawky 
heathen, leading a pack-horse loaded with an unmentionable article, is 
made to know, by a cut of the whip over his neck, that he must move 
faster next time. The priest in his robes, brocade collar, and shaven 
head ; the merchant, in his tight breeches ; the laborer, with his bare 
legs ; the samurai, with his two swords and loose trousers ; the pil- 
grim, in his white dress, are all easily recognized. 

As for the beggars, we can not understand their " Chabu chabu ko- 
marimasu tempo danna san, dozo (Please, master, a penny ; we are in 
great trouble for our grub) ; but we comprehend the object of their 
importunity. They are loathsome, dirty, ragged, sore. Now I wish 
I were a physician, to heal such vileness and suffering. Who would 
care to do an artist's or a poet's work when the noblest art of healing 
needs to be practiced ? The children run after us. The old beggars 
live in straw kennels by the roadside. Some are naked, except dirty 
mats bound round them. The law of Japan does not recognize them 
as human : they are beasts. The man who kills them will be neither 
prosecuted nor punished. There lies one dead in the road. No ! 
Can it be ? Yes, there is a dead beggar, and he will lie unburied, per- 
haps for days, if the dogs don't save the work from the coroner. 
"And the beggar died !" Will he be carried by angels to Abraham's 
bosom ? 

The driver reins up, and the horses come to a halt. We have stop- 
ped before a tea-house of whose fame we have heard, and man and 
beast are refreshed. The driver takes brandy, the betto tea, and the 



A RIDE ON THE TOKAIDO. 359 

horses water. The first drinks from a tumbler, the second from a cup ; 
the four-footed drinkers must wait. Pretty girls come out to wish us 
good-morning. One, with a pair of eyes not to be forgotten, brings a 
tray of tiny cups full of green tea, and a plate of red sweetmeats, beg- 
ging us to partake. I want neither, though a bit of paper-money is 
placed on the tray for beauty's sake. The maid is about seventeen, 
graceful in figure, and her neat dress is bound round with a wide girdle 
tied into a huge bow behind. Her neck is powdered. Her laugh dis- 
plays a row of superb white teeth, and her jet-black hair is rolled in a 
maidenly style. The fairest sights in Japan are Japan's fair daughters. 

This tea-house has a history. Its proprietress is familiarly known 
among all foreigners who ride on the Tokaido, and sit on her mats in- 
side, or her benches in front beneath the trees, as " Black-eyed Susan." 
Her eyes deserve their renown, and her face its fame. Her beauty is 
known throughout the land. Many a story is told about princes and 
noblemen who have tried to lure her to gem their harem. She refuses 
all offers, and remains the keeper of herself and her fortune. Near by 
Black-eyed Susan's stands a clump of trees. It was near this place that, 
in 1863, poor Richardson lost his life (see Appendix). He sleeps now 
in Yokohama cemetery. It saddens us to think of it. 

Our solemn thoughts are dissipated in a moment, for the betto is 
watering the horses. He gives them drink out of a dipper ! A cup- 
ful of water at a time to a thirsty horse ! The animal himself would 
surely laugh, if he were not a Japanese horse, and used to it. 

" Sayonara !" (farewell) cry the pretty girls, as they bow profound- 
ly and gracefully, and the stage rolls on. We pass through villages 
of thatched houses, on which, along the ridge, grow beds of the iris. 
Between them appear landscapes new to eyes accustomed to grass 
meadows and corn-fields and winter wheat of Pennsylvania. Far and 
wide are the fallow fields covered with shallow water, and studded 
with rice-stubble. All the flat land is one universal rice-ditch. The 
low hills are timbered with evergreen. The brighter tints of the 
feathery bamboo temper the intensity of the sombre glory. Bamboo 
thickets, pine groves, and rice-fields — these are the ever-present sights 
in Japan. A half-hour through such scenery, and the stage stops at 
Kawasaki (river-point) to change horses. We are to cross the Roku- 
go River in boats. The road bends at a right angle toward the water, 
and at each corner is a large tea-house, full of noisy, fat girls, anxious 
to display a vulgar familiarity with the stranger. Too close contact 
with hostlers, drivers, and the common sort of residents in Japan has 



360 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



made these, doubtless once modest and polite females, a pack of impu- 
dent wantons. 

I am not charmed by the too-willing charmers, and, declining the 
ever-proffered cup of tea, make my way down to the river, passing 
four toll-men, who squat on their knees at the receipt of custom, pil- 
ing on upright skewers the square-holed oval and round coins which 
the travelers deposit. At the river's edge, a flat-bottomed boat, crowd- 
ed with people of every class, with a horse or two on board, is coming 
hitherward, and one is just ready to push off. A few strokes of the 
pole, and we are over. The Japanese have used this river for centu- 
ries, and have never yet built a bridge.* The company in the boat is 
sometimes rather mixed. It has not escaped Hokusai's pencil, who 
made an album of Tokaido sketches. He has jotted down at the side 




Crossing the Eokugo River at Kawasaki. (Hokusai.) 

of his sketch the two characters signifying Kawasaki (river -point), 
which all travelers to Tokio know full well. Strange to say, the same 
river in Japan often has many local names. A Japanese geography 
rarely thinks it necessary to describe a river from source to mouth. 
The people hereabouts call this river the Rokugo, and the foreigners, 
who are quite sure to get Japanese names upside down, have corrupt- 
ed it into Logo, or, with apparent impiety, Logos. 

The stage not being over yet, I go into a straw hut, in which a fire 
warms twenty-four feet shod with rice-straw sandals, and the smoke 
of which inflames twenty-four eyes belonging to half that number of 
such specimens of humanity as constitute the bulk of Japan's popula- 
tion, and whom foreigners called " coolies." Two arms, two legs, a 



* An iron bridge now (1877) spans the stream. 



A RIDE ON TEE TOKAIDO. 361 

head, and trunk, when added together in an Asiatic country, do not 
produce the same sum that such factors would yield in America. 
With us a man is a man. In Asiatic countries he is a wheelbarrow, a 
beast of burden, a political cipher, a being who exists for the sake of 
his masters or the government. The men before me wear old, unlined 
cotton coats and straw sandals as their winter dress. In summer their 
wardrobe consists of straw sandals and a rag around their loins, in all 
about thirty-six linear inches of decency. Yet the tax-gatherer visits 
them, and even the priests glean in this stubble of humanity. Schools, 
law, thought, freedom, votes ! These are unheard of, unimagined. 
Yet they were polite and kind. They offer the foreigner room by the 
fire, until the smoke drives him outside, where the loathsome beggars 
swarm and importune in the language of the houseless. The stage is 
ready, and, taking one good look at the bright new railway bridge by 
which hired English energy and loaned capital have spanned the river, 
I fold myself beneath the buffalo-robe, and the driver proceeds to tell 
me of the treat soon in store. 

The ghastly entertainment was at hand. Just before Shinagawa, 
the suburb of great Tokio, by the side of the road, is a small patch of 
grassy soil only slightly raised above the rice-ditches. Here, on a pil- 
lory about six feet high, two human heads were exposed, propped, and 
made hideously upright by lumps of clay under each ear. The ooz- 
ing blood had stained the timber, and hung in coagulated drops and 
icicles of gore beneath. A dissevered head absent from its body is 
horrible enough, but a head shaven in mid-scalp with a top-knot on it 
has a hitherto unimagined horror, especially Japanese. 

How pleasant it would be to mention in this book nothing but the 
beautiful ! How easy to let our glamoured eyes see naught but beau- 
ty and novelty ! Why not paint Japan as a land of peerless natural 
beauty, of polite people, of good and brave men, of pretty maidens, 
and gentle women ? Why bring in beggars, bloody heads, loathsome 
sores, scenes of murder, assassins' bravery, and humanity with all no- 
bility stamped out by centuries of despotism ? Why not ? Simply 
because homely truth is better than gilded falsehood. Only because 
it is sin to conceal the truth when my countrymen, generous to be- 
lieve too well, and led astray by rhetorical deceivers and truth-smoth- 
erers, have the falsest ideas of Japan, that only a pen like a probe can 
set right. No pen sooner than mine shall record reforms when made. 
I give the true picture of Japan in 1871. 

So we pass these bloody symbols of Japan's bloody code of edicts, 



362 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

misnamed laws, by which she terrifies her people into obedience, and 
drive on through the narrow road past fine, large houses, clean, shin- 
ing, and pretty. What business is carried on in those edifices, splen- 
did in Japanese eyes, charming to a foreigner, and appearing, beside 
the ordinary citizen's dwelling, as palaces beside cottages ? Scores of 
them are ranged along the road. Shinagawa is the home of harlots, 
and here is the resort, not only of the ruffian, the rake, and the robber, 
but of the young men of the land. The finest houses in Japan belong 
to the woman in scarlet. The licensed government brothel, covering 
acres of land, is the most beautiful part of the capital. Oriental splen- 
dor — a myth in the streets — becomes reality when the portals of the 
Yoshiwara are crossed. 

Out in the blue bay stands the chain of forts built by the shogun's 
government after the arrival of Commodore Perry. Behind them 
rides at anchor the national navy of Japan, all floating the national 
flag — a red sun on a white field. I easily recognize the old iron-clad 
Stonewall, now the Adzuma kuan. 

Half-past ten, and we sweep past the entrance to the British lega- 
tion. The red flag and crosses of England wave aloft, and the red- 
coated sentinel paces his round. Britons will long remember the le- 
gation at Takanawa. Incendiarism and gunpowder plots, murderous 
attacks by night, and three assassinations by daylight, have made this 
ground historic. " Killed from behind " are the words that have blot- 
ted the Japanese escutcheon with scores of stains as indelible as those 
on Bluebeard's key. Repeated washing in the fountain of indemnity 
and blood-money can never cleanse it. Not far from the British le- 
gation are the tombs of the Forty-seven ronins of immortal fame. 
We have passed the black gate at Shinagawa, and are in the city. I 
see to the left the Kosatsu — a roofed frame of wood, on which hang 
boards inscribed in Japanese with edicts centuries old, yet renewed by 
the present government. I can not read the Chinese ideographs, but 
I know the meaning of one of them — the slanderous and in suiting- 
edict that denounces the Christian religion as a hateful and devilish 
sect, and hounds on every bigot and informer to ferret out the Chris- 
tians. This is the foreigner's welcome to Tokio in 1871. Does the 
Japanese capital answer to the description in the old geographies — " a 
large, park-like city, with a population of 2,500,000 ?" I shall see. 
Suburbs are usually unprepossessing, and I reserve my judgment. At 
eleven o'clock we drive past the splendid Monzeki temple of the Shin 
sect of Buddhists and into the yard of the Great Hotel at Tstikiji. 



IN TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 363 



III. 

IN TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 

I was a stranger in a wilderness of a million souls. In half an hour 
I had left the yard of the huge caravansary, which the Japanese who 
had built it fondly believed to be a comfortable hotel, and was on my 
way to the distant quarter of the city in which was situated the Im- 
perial College. I walked by preference, as I had studied the map of 
Tokio, and some rude native pictures of certain landmarks while in 
America, and I now determined to test the soundness of my knowl- 
edge. I had that proficiency in speaking the language which five 
words badly pronounced could give. Every foreigner who sojourns 
in Japan for a week learns " Sukoshi matte " (wait a little), " Ikura ?" 
(how much?), "Doko?" (where?), "Yoroshiu" (all right), and "Ha- 
yaku " (hurry). With these on my tongue, and my map in my hand, 
I started. I passed through the foreign quarter, which is part of the 
old district called Tsukiji (filled-up land). It faces the river, and is 
moated in on all sides by canals. It is well paved, cleaned, and light- 
ed, contrasting favorably with the streets of the native city. The 
opening of Yedo as a foreign port cost a great outlay of money, but 
as a settlement was a failure, partly on account of high ground -rent, 
but mainly because the harbor is too shallow. Almost the only per- 
sons who live in Tsukiji are the foreign officials at the consulates, mis- 
sionaries, and a few merchants. I walked on, interested at seeing novel 
sights at every step, and at the limits passed a guard-house full of sol- 
diers of Maeda, the daimio of Kaga. These kept watch and ward at 
a black gate, flanked by a high black paling fence. For years it was 
absolutely necessary to guard all the approaches to the foreign quar- 
ter, and keep out all suspicious two-sworded men. Incendiarism and 
the murder of the hated foreigners were favorite amusements of the 
young blades of Japan, who wished both to get the shogun in trouble 
and to rid their beautiful land of the devilish foreigners. Every ap- 
proach to Yokohama was thus guarded at this time. From the for- 
eign quarter into the Yoshiwara is but a step. Handsome two-storied 



364 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

wooden buildings, open to the street, were filled with pretty young 
girls, playing upon the samisen (banjo), having their hair dressed, sit- 
ting idle, or engaged at their toilet mirrors. Japanese male cynics say 
that a looking-glass is the mind of a woman. Handsome streets of 
neat houses extended to a distance of half a mile on each side, from 
which the same sounds proceeded. Why were these houses so fine ? 
Why so many young girls gathered ? Here were beauty, tender years, 
soft smiles, and luxurious houses. Here were little girls trained to do, 
when grown, as the older girls. For what purpose ? 

In every port open to foreigners in Japan, in a few of the other 
large cities, but not in daimios' capitals, there is the same institution. 
It is Japan's own. Before they opened any port to foreign trade, the 
Japanese built two places for the foreigners — a custom-house and a 
brothel. The Yoshiwara is such a place. For the foreigners they 
supposed it to be a necessary good; for themselves, a protection to 
their people against ships' crews suddenly set free on land : they count- 
ed it a necessary evil. They believed the foreigners to be far worse 
than themselves. How far were they wrong ? 

We proceed through the quarter into streets lined with open shops. 
Privacy is not at a premium in Japan. One might live at home for 
years without understanding the mysteries of a lady's toilet. In Japan 
one learns it in a few days. Here is the human form divine bare to 
the waist, while its possessor laves her long black hair in warm water. 
She is about eighteen years old, evidently. Her mirror, powder-box, 
etc., lie about her. There is a mother shaving her baby's head. The 
chief occupation of the shop-keepers seems to be that of toasting their 
digits. I halt at a shop full of ivory carvings. Some of them are 
elegant works of art. Some are puns in ivory. Some are historical 
tableaux, which I recognize at once. These trophies of the geological 
cemeteries, or refrigerators, of Siberia are metamorphosed into what- 
ever form of beauty and grotesque humor the lively fancy of the 
carver has elected. The ivory in Japan was anciently brought from 
India, but in later times, through Corea, from the shores of the Arctic 
Ocean, where it is said modern dogs feed on the prehistoric meat of 
mammoths and mastodons frozen hard ages ago. Nearly all the ivory 
thus imported is put to a single use. It is carved into netsukes, or large 
buttons perforated with two holes, in which a silken cord is riven, and 
which holds the smoking apparatus, the vade mecum, of the native. 
Flint, tinder, and steel in one bag ; tobacco in another ; tiny - bowled, 
brass-tipped bamboo pipe, in a case, are all suspended by the netsuki 



IN TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 



365 




Netsuke, or Ivory Button, for holding a Gentle- 
man's Pipe and Pouch in his Girdle. 



thrusi up through the girdle. The one represented in the accompa- 
nying cut shows how a Japanese rider, evidently somebody, from his 
hempen toque, mounts a horse, 
i. e., on the right (or wrong) 
side, while his betto holds the 
steed. 

I pass through one street de- 
voted to bureaus and cabinets, 
through another full of folding 
screens, through another full of 
dyers' shops, with their odors 
and vats. In one small but 
neat shop sits an old man, with 
horn -rimmed spectacles, with 
the mordant liquid beside him, 
preparing a roll of material for 
its next bath. In another street there is nothing on sale but bamboo- 
poles, but enough of these to make a forest. A man is sawing one, 
and I notice he pulls the saw with his two hands toward him. Its 
teeth are set contrary to ours. Another man is planing. He pulls 

the plane toward him. I notice a 
blacksmith at work : he pulls the 
bellows with his foot, while he is 
holding and hammering with both 
hands. He has several irons in 
the fire, and keeps his dinner-pot 
boiling with the waste flame. His 
whole family, like the generations 
before him, seem to " all get their 
living in the hardware line." The 
cooper holds his tub with his toes. 
All of them sit down while they work. How strange ! Perhaps that 
is an important difference between a European and an Asiatic. One 
sits down to his work, the other stands up to it. 

Why is it that we do things contrariwise to the Japanese ? Are we 
upside down, or they ? The Japanese say that we are reversed. They 
call our penmanship " crab-writing," because, say they, " it goes back- 
ward." The lines in our books cross the page like a craw-fish, instead 
of going downward " properly." In a Japanese stable we find the 
horse's flank where we look for his head. Japanese screws screw the 

24 




Pattern Designer preparing a Roll of Silk 
for the Dye-vat. 



* 



366 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

other way. Their locks thrust to the left, ours to the right. The 
baby-toys of the Aryan race squeak when squeezed ; the Turanian gim- 
cracks emit noise when pulled apart. A Caucasian, to injure his ene- 
my, kills him ; a Japanese kills himself to spite his foe. Which race 
is left-handed? Which has the negative, which the positive of truth? 
What is truth ? What is down, what is up ? 

I emerge from the bamboo street to the Tori, the main street, the 
Broadway of the Japanese capital. I recognize it. The shops are 
gayer and richer; the street is wider; it is crowded with people. 
Now, for the first time, comes the intense and vivid realization that 
this is Japan. Here is a kago, with a woman and baby inside. Two 
half-naked coolies bear the pole on their shoulders, and hurry along, 
grunting in Japanese. They bear sticks in their hands, and stop at 
every few yards, rest the beam on their sticks, and change shoulders. 
Here comes an officer on horseback, with a lacquered helmet on his 
head, and bound with white pads over his chin. His two swords pro- 
trude from his girdle, his feet rest flat in wide iron stirrups, curved up 
like a skate-runner, and have room to spare. His saddle has enormous 
flaps of gilt leather. He grasps the reins, one in each hand, at about 
six inches from the bit, holding his horse's head so that his lower lip 
is higher than the space between his ears. This is torture and grace 
combined. It is the stylish thing in Japan. The horse's mane is tied 
up in a row of stiff pompoons ; his tail is incased in a long bag of 
silk. Enormous tassels hang from the horse's shoulders. " There is 
a method in riding," is a Japanese saying. I believe it. 

Here are soldiers, so I judge. They are dressed in every style of 
hybrid costume. One, in a broadcloth suit, finishes with bare head 
and clogs on the feet. Another has a foreign cap, but a Japanese suit. 
This man has on a pair of cowhide boots, against which his kilt flaps 
ungracefully, reminding one of an American tycoon going to the well 
to draw water. This one has a zouave jacket and native kilt. The 
soldiers look as if they had just sacked New York, and begun on 
Chatham Street. The braves have a brace of stabbing tools stuck in 
their belt. They are the two-sworded men, and insolent, swaggering 
bullies many of them are. As they pass the foreigner, they give him 
black scowls for a welcome. They are chiefly the retainers of the dai- 
mios of Tosa, Satsuma, Choshiu, and Hizen, and are pride-swollen with 
victory over the rebels at Wakamatsu and Hakodate. It is ticklish to 
walk among so many armed fellows who seem to be spoiling for for- 
eign blood. Japanese swords are quickly drawn, and are sharp. No 



IN TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 369 

true man is really afraid when his enemy attacks in front ; but to be 
cut down by a coward from behind ! The thought makes my marrow 
curdle. With these foolish thoughts, I pass along for about a mile 
unscathed, for I have not yet learned the Japanese, and have read Al- 
cock. I arrive at the place renowned in all Japan. The Romans had 
their golden mile-stone, whence all distances throughout the empire 
were measured, Here, in the heart of Tokio, is Nihon Bashi (Bridge 
of Japan), whence, so it is said, all the great roads of the empire are 
measured. I had heard of it in America. All rural Japanese know 
of it. All expect, without warrant, to see a splendid bridge, and all 
are disappointed. It is a hump-backed wooden structure, a crazy mass 
of old fire-wood. It is lined on either side with loathsome beggars, 
asleep, gambling, playing, or begging. Mendicant priests in rags chant 
doleful prayers, pound stiff drums shaped like battledores. The vend- 
ers of all kinds of trash cluster around it. On the left, as we ap- 
proach from the south, stands the great Kosatsu.* On the bridge, 
glorious Fuji is seen in the distance, and near by the towers, moats, 

* Three of these edicts, and a repetition of the fourth, are given, with dates : 

"Board No. I. — Law. 
" The evil sect called Christian is strictly prohibited. Suspicious persons 
should be reported to the proper officers, and rewards will be given. 

"Dai Jo Kuan. 

"Fourth year Kei-o, Third month (March 24th-April 22d,186S). 

"Board No. II. — Law. 

"Persons uniting together in numbers for any object soever are called leag- 
uers ; persons leaguing together for the purpose of petitioning in a forcible man- 
ner are called insurrectionists ; persons who conspire to leave the ward or vil- 
lage in which they live are called runaways. All these acts are strictly prohib- 
ited. 

"Should any persons commit these offenses, information must at once be giv- 
en to the proper officers, and suitable rewards will be given. Dai Jo Kuan. 

"Fourth year Kei-o, Third month (March 24th-April 22d, 1868). 

"Board No. III. — Law. 
" Human beings must carefully practice the principles of the five social rela- 
tions. Charity must be shown to widowers, widows, orphans, the childless, and 
sick. There must be no such crimes as murder, arson, or robbery. 

"Dai Jo Kuan. 

"Fourth year Kei-6, Third month (March 24th-April 22d, 186S). 

" Law. 

"With respect to the Christian sect, the existing prohibition must be strictly 
observed. 
"Evil sects are strictly prohibited. 
"Fourth month of the First year of Meiji (November, 1868)." 



370 THE MIKADO'S EMPIBE. 

and walls of the castle. Up and down the canal cluster hundreds of 
boats, and a range of fire-proof store-houses line the banks. To the 
east is seen Yedo Bashi, or Bridge of Yedo. Turning up Suruga Cho, 
with Fuji's glorious form before me, I pass the great silk shop and 
fire-proof ware-houses of Mitsui, the millionaire ; I reach the castle 
moat and wall, and pass by the former mansion of Keiki, the last sho- 
gun. At noon, precisely, I arrive at the house of the American Superin- 
tendent of the Imperial College, to whom I bear letters and credentials. 
Behind black fences, high and hideous, I found the bungalows of 
the dozen foreign teachers of the college. At the table pi the su- 
perintendent I sat down to take " tiffin," as the noon meal in the East 
is called. Congratulations and tho news were exchanged. At one 
o'clock the superintendent returned promptly to his work, and the new- 
comer remained to revel among the books, curiosities, and pictures of 
his genial host. When school is over, we are to walk out to Uyeno, 
to see the ruins of the battle of July 4th, 1868. Two hours of wait- 
ing pass quickly, and at a little after three o'clock, hearing a strange, 
noisy clatter, I run out by the gate to see what is going on. The 
school is being dismissed. What a sight for a school-master ! Hun- 
dreds of boys, young men, and men of older growth, all on high wood- 
en clogs, are shuffling and scraping homeward. The noise of their 
clogs on the rough pebbles of the street makes a strange clatter. 
They are all dressed in the native costume of loose coats, with long 
and bag-like sleeves ; kilts, like petticoats, open at the upper side ; 
with shaven mid-scalps, and top-knots like gun-hammers. Men and 
boys carry slates and copy-books in their hands, and common cheap 
glass ink-bottles slung by pieces of twine to their girdles. Hands 
and faces are smeared with the black fluid ; but, strangest of all, each 
has two of the murderous -looking swords, one long and the other 
short, stuck in his belt. Symbols of the soldier rather than the schol- 
ar are these ; but the samurai are both. They compose the " milita- 
ry-literary" class of Japan. A " scholar and a gentleman " is our pet 
compliment ; but in Japan, to be "a scholar, a soldier, and a gentle- 
man," is the aspiration of every samurai. A wild-looking set they 
seem, but the heart kindles to think of the young life of this Asiatic 
empire being fed at the streams of the science and languages of Chris- 
tian nations. In spite of the smeared clothes and faces, the topsy-tur- 
vy top-knots, and average slovenliness, quite natural after six hours' 
school-boy's work, and quite different from the morning's spruceness, 
there were so many earnest faces that the school-master abroad was 



IN TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 371 

delighted, and felt eager to join in the work of helping on the rising 
generation and grand purpose of New Japan. 

" Education is the basis of all progress." The Japanese found it 
out. The Home Department of the new imperial government in 
1870 reorganized the school, originally founded by the bakufu, and 
engaged an English and a French teacher to give instruction. Years 
before, at Nagasaki, an American missionary, whose name I omit only 
in deference to his sensitive modesty, had taught Japanese young 
men, sending forth scores who afterward held high place in govern- 
ment counsels. They called him to take charge of their chief school 
in Tokio. In January, 1869, there were three French, three German, 
and five English teachers, and about eight or nine hundred scholars. 
It was called a " university ;" its proper name was a school of lan- 
guages. 

The Japanese had very primitive ideas concerning the fitness of 
men to teach. The seclusion of Japan for nearly three hundred years 
had its effect in producing generations of male adults who, compared 
to men trained in the life of modern civilization, were children. Any 
one who could speak English could evidently teach it. The idea of a 
trained professional foreign teacher was never entertained by them. 
They picked up men from Tokio and Yokohama. The " professors " 
at first obtained were often ex-bar-tenders, soldiers, sailors, clerks, etc. 
When teaching, with pipe in mouth, and punctuating their instruc- 
tions with oaths, or appearing in the class-room top-heavy, the Japa- 
nese concluded that such eccentricities were merely national peculiar- 
ities. As for " Japanese wives," they were in many houses, and this 
the native authorities never suspected was wrong, or different from 
the foreign custom. In America there was read to me a paper on the 
subject, and I innocently marveled at the high tone of Japanese mo- 
rality. I found out afterward that the clause meant that the foreign 
teachers must not change mistresses too often. One American in To- 
kio enjoyed a harem of ten native beauties. Yet there were some 
faithful found among the faithless, and real, earnest teachers. Yet 
even these were not altogether comprehensible to their employers. 
One man, a Christian gentleman, but not painfully neat, especially in 
his foot-gear, having the habit peculiar to a certain great man of never 
lacing up his shoes, the Japanese director of the school solemnly in- 
quired whether the gentleman was angry at the officers. They sup- 
posed that he had some cause of complaint against them, and was 
showing it professionally by not lacing up his shoes. They were 



372 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

quite relieved on being informed that the unlaced boots neither fore- 
boded nor expressed dissatisfaction. 

It was a Herculean, nay, rather a seemingly impracticable, task to 
reduce that wild chaos of humanity to order and system. Here were 
gathered together a thousand male Japanese, of every age, and from 
every quarter of the empire. The middle-aged and old men, who 
wished to learn merely to read and translate, and not to speak, a for- 
eign language, were mostly in the "meaning-school." The younger, 
though some were over thirty, learned the alphabet, spelling, conversa- 
tions, writing, and, in the higher classes, geography, arithmetic, and 
simple history. The buildings were rows of sheds with glass win- 
dows, deal desks and seats, and unpainted wood partitions. 

A thousand top-knots, two thousand swords; as many clogs, as 
many suits of cotton dress ; a thousand pairs of oblique eyes that saw 
not as the eyes of the Teuton, the Frank, the Briton, or the American 
saw ; a thousand rice-filled stomachs ; a thousand brains filled with 
the ideas instilled by the old education of Japan ; a thousand pairs of 
arms trained to the sword, spear, and bow ; a thousand restless bodies 
that chafed under foreign school discipline — all these together made 
what seemed chaos to the teacher fresh from the order and neatness 
of an American school. In the rickety rooms were fire-pots and bam- 
boo tubes doing duty as ash-boxes; for at each recess, even during 
recitation, native scholar and teacher were wont to pull out their pipes 
and fill the tiny bowls to smoke. 

An old daimio's yashiki had been transformed by rows of sheds 
into the "University." According to Japanese etiquette, the officers 
entered at one door, the teachers at another, the scholars at a third. 
As the school began somewhere about 9 a.m., the scholars thronged 
along the stone walk. The scraping clatter of their wooden clogs and 
pattens was deafening. Each came to school wearing his two swords. 
Entering a large square room, each delivered his clogs to one of the 
half-dozen attendant servants, who, hanging them up, gave the owner 
a wooden check branded with a number. In another room, which 
looked like an arsenal, he took out his long sword, which was laid on 
one of the hundred or more racks, and checked as before. Hats they 
never wore, and so were never troubled to hang them up. There was 
not a hat in Japan a decade ago, at least in the cylindrical sense of 
the term. When the Westernized native does begin to wear one, he 
never knows at first where to put it when off his head, or remembers 
it when he goes away from where he laid it. 



IN TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 373 

In rainy weather, their paper umbrellas were stowed away and 
ticketed in the same manner as their clogs. Thus despoiled, in bare 
feet, or in mitten - stockings, with short sword in belt, from which 
wooden checks depended, the scholars entered their rooms. The 
teacher, not always early, began with his top-knots, and right grandly 
did the young eyes snap and the young ideas shoot. With such ma- 
terial the superintendent went on. With officers utterly unacquainted 
with their duties ; teachers of all sorts, and no sort at all ; undisciplined 
pupils, having to combat suspicion, ignorance, and, worse than all, 
Japanese vanity and conceit, he toiled on for years, the final result be- 
ing morally magnificent. In this school the scholars attended but one 
session, being divided into morning and afternoon scholars. Half of 
them messed or boarded in barracks built by the school ; but where 
they went at night, or how they spent their spare time, was no one's 
business. 

The mikado's government had been in operation in Tokio two years, 
but it was on any thing but a stable foundation. Conspiracies and 
rumors we had for breakfast, dinner, and supper. To-day, Satsuma 
was going to carry off the mikado. To-morrow, the " tycoon " was to 
be restored. The next day, the foreigners were to be driven out of 
Tokio, and then out of Japan. The city was not only full of the 
turbulent troops of the jealous daimios, but of hundreds of the Jo-i 
(or foreigner-haters), the patriot assassins, who thought they were do- 
ing the gods service, and their country a good, in cleaving a foreigner 
in the street. 

Before I left America, my students had told me by all means to 
take a revolver with me, as I might very likely meet ronins. I had 
one of Smith & Wesson's best. Few foreign residents ever went far 
from their houses without one, and many wisely kept indoors at night, 
except upon urgent duty. About fifty foreigners had been killed in 
Japan since 1859. For the safety of the teachers, about fifty armed 
men, called bette, were kept in pay. These knights were dubbed 
" Brown Betties" — a vile pun, evidently by an American, through whose 
sad memory visions of that appetizing pudding flittered, as he mourn- 
ed its absence, with that of buckwheat-cakes, pumpkin-pies, turkeys, 
and other home delicacies. Horses were kept ready saddled, and the 
bette were always ready to accompany man or horse. It was impossi- 
ble to slip out without them. By a curious system of Japanese arith- 
metical progression, one bette accompanied one foreigner, four of them 
went with two, and eight with three. One would suppose that a sin- 



374 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

gle foreigner was in greater danger than when with a companion. 
The first afternoon I walked to see the ruins of Uyeno, once the glory 
of the city, with my host. I noticed one guard kept always with us. 
Not being counted a protege, I often went on my rambles alone. I 
was never harmed, though I got an occasional scowl, and was often 
obliged to pass along narrow and lonely streets, in which villainous- 
looking men, with two murderous-looking swords in their belts, were 
numerous. 

Among the many sites in the city from which one can get a view 
of Fuji from base to summit, are Atago yama, the top of Kudan zaka, 
and Suruga Dai, or elevation, so named from the fact that you behold 
the lordly mountain as though you were in Suruga itself. 




View of Fuji, from Suruga Dai, in Tokio. 

One afternoon I had been out walking to Asakusa and Uyeno with 
the only American teacher in the school at that time, and, after a long 
tramp, returned to recount what I had seen, and to consult my host. 
"We agreed, the morrow being a holiday, to make an excursion to the 
lovely suburban retreat Oji, just outside, to the north of Tokio. After 
an evening among maps, note-books, and letters, as usual, I retired to 
rest. I was a sound sleeper, and noticed nothing during the night. 
About 4 a.m. my host appeared at my door, and, in a rather sepulchral 
tone, informed me that we could not go to Oji that day. There had 
been great changes during the night, and two teachers of the school 
had been cut down in the streets. 

I dressed hurriedly, and at our hasty breakfast by the lamp I learn- 
ed the story of the night. It was a simple one, but bloody enough. 
The two men had gone to Tstikiji, and there dismissed their guards. 
Presuming upon their supposed safety, and being wholly unarmed, 
they started to another part of the city, not far from the school. 
From their own story, they were quietly walking along one of the 
streets. The tallest of them suddenly received such a blow from be- 



IN TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 37 o 

hind that he fell, supposing that some one had knocked him down 
with a bamboo or club. Almost before he fell, his companion re- 
ceived a frightful cut on the opposite shoulder. Both then knew they 
had received sword - wounds, and they both started to run. The first 
one attacked ran up the street into an open paper-shop, begging the 
people to bind up his wounds, and send word to the college. The 
second, being the last on his feet, was overtaken by his pursuer, who 
dealt him a second sweeping two-handed blow, which cut a canal 
across his back from right shoulder to left hip, nearly eleven inches 
long. He gained the paper-shop, however, and begged the people to 
stanch his wounds with the thick, soft Japanese paper. After giving 
their address, and bidding the people send for a doctor and a school 
officer, they fainted away from loss of blood. They were, when I saw 
them, lying asleep at the paper- shop, native doctors having reached 
them and skillfully bound up their wounds. 

We left the college at half-past four, well armed, and accompanied 
by a servant carrying a lantern. We passed down the street skirting 
the castle moat to the Tori. It was very dark, and the city was in 
unbroken slumber. The only sight was the night roundsman pacing 
his beat, lantern in his left hand, and jingling an iron staff, surmount- 
ed by bunches of rings on the top, which he thumped on the ground 
at every few steps, crying out, "Hi no yojin" (look out for fire). Here 
and there, in nooks and corners, we saw a beggar curled up under his 
mats. We finally reached the house in Nabe Cho (Rice-pot Street). 
We entered by a side door, and found in the back-room, sitting and 
smoking round the hibachi, six or eight interpreters and Japanese 
teachers from the college. Sliding aside the paper partitions, we look- 
ed into the front room, and, by the light of our lanterns, saw the two 
wounded men, one with head bandaged and face upward, the other 
lying prone, with back tightly swathed, asleep, and breathing heavily. 
We waited till daylight, when they woke up and told us their story. 
The skillful surgeon of the English legation arrived shortly after, 
commending highly the skill displayed by the native surgeons in bind- 
ing up the wounds. 

I spent several days and nights in the house, attending the patients. 
The wounds of one were of a frightful character ; that of the other was 
upon the head and shoulder-blade. The blow had grazed the skull, 
and cut deeply into the fleshy part of the back. It was not dangerous : 
in a few days he sat up, and the wound rapidly healed. For several 
days the weakness arising from the loss of blood and the wound-fever 



376 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

threatened to end the life of his companion. One of his ribs was 
nearly severed, and both gashes were long and deep. He had to be 
handled very tenderly. After seven days, however, they were able to 
be removed to their own house, and, as they had provided other nurses, 
my services were no longer required. 

I took the early stage on the morning of the attack, and carried 
the news to Yokohama. The mikado's Government, with astonishing 
energy, immediately took steps to discover the assassins, using the 
most strenuous exertions. Every one leaving the city or passing the 
gates was searched. Every samurai in Tokio was obliged to give an 
account of his whereabouts from sunset to sunrise of that evening. 
Every sword worn in Tokio was examined to discover blood -stains, 
which can not be removed except by grinding. Every sword -maker 
and grinder was questioned. I know of several small boys who felt 
highly elated at the great and rare honor of having a posse of pomp- 
ous government officials gravely examine their swords, according to or- 
ders. Nothing gave one so real an idea of the sincerity and ability of 
the Government, and its determination to reform barbarous customs, 
as their energy on this occasion. The stage which carried me to 
Yokohama was stopped at the Shinagawa guard-house by a man armed 
with a barbed hook, to examine any Japanese that might be within. 

The excitement among the foreigners in Tokio next morning was 
intense. Prophets went round prophesying that in a week Tokio 
would be deserted of foreigners. A certain consul posted up a notice 
in a public place — in a bar-room, I believe — authorizing any citizen of 
his nationality, should any Japanese be seen laying his hand on his 
sword, " to shoot him on the spot." The most violent and inflamma- 
tory language appeared in the newspapers. Some hot-headed folks at 
Yokohama held a meeting, and resolved that the Japanese Government 
should disarm the samurai, by ordering the immediate abolition of 
the custom of wearing swords. Yokohama residents whose business 
brought them to Tokio, though belted and with two revolvers, saw in 
every Japanese boy or coolie an assassin. A nightmare of samurai, 
swords, blood, bleeding heads and arms, grave-stones, and grim death 
brooded over the foreigners. " The beaten soldier fears the tops of 
the tall grass." 

Amidst this panic of fear, two mild and gentle countrymen of mine — 
one a missionary who had lived in Japan and among the people seven 
years, and another who for months had gone among them day and 
night unarmed — opened my eyes. Even the sworded samurai became 



W TOKIO, THE EASTERN CAPITAL. 377 

in my vision as harmless as trees walking. I saw that the affair, which 
had frightened some men out of their wits, concerned a gentleman 
about as much as a murder in Water Street, or the Five Points, con- 
cerns a law-loving citizen of New York, who attends quietly to his 
business. I soon put away my revolver, and began the study of facts 
relating to the many cases of " assassination " of foreigners in Japan. 
In every instance, since the restoration of peace after the troubles of 
the civil war, it was a story of overbearing insolence, cruelty, insult, 
the jealousy of paramours, native women, or avarice, or the effect of 
causes which neither fair play nor honor could justify. 

During my stay of nearly four years in Japan, several Europeans 
were attacked or killed ; but in no case was there a genuine assassina- 
tion, or unprovoked assault. I was led to see the horrible injustice of 
the so-called indemnities, the bombardments of cities, the slaughter of 
Japanese people, and the savage vengeance wreaked for fancied in- 
juries against foreigners. There is no blacker page in history than 
the exactions and cruelties practiced against Japan by the diplomatic 
representatives of the nations called Christian — in the sense of having 
the heaviest artillery. In their financial and warlike operations in 
Japan, the foreign ministers seem to have acted as though there was 
no day of judgment. Of the Japanese servants kicked and beaten, 
or frightened to death, by foreign masters ; of peaceable citizens knock- 
ed down by foreign fists, or ridden over by horses ; of Japanese homes 
desolated, and innocent men and women, as well as soldiers, torn by 
shells, and murdered by unjust bombardments, what reparation has 
been made ? What indemnity paid ? What measures of amelioration 
taken for terrible excess of bloody revenge at Kagoshima and Shimo- 
noseki ? What apology rendered ? For a land impoverished and torn, 
for the miseries of a people compelled by foreigners, for the sake of 
their cursed dollars, to open their country, what sympathy ? For their 
cholera and vile diseases, their defiling immorality, their brutal violence, 
their rum, what benefits in return ? Of real encouragement, of cheer 
to Japan in her mighty struggle to regenerate her national life, what 
word ? Only the answer of the horse-leech — for blood, blood ; and at 
all times, gold, gold, gold. They ask all, and give next to nothing. 
For their murders and oppressions they make no reparation. Is 
Heaven always on the side of the heaviest artillery ? 



378 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



IV. 

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN A PAGAN TEMPLE. 

The temple of Kuanon at Asakusa is to Tokio what St. Paul's is 
to London, or Notre Dame to Paris. The chief temple of the city, 
the most popular religious resort, one never sees the Japanese capital 
till he sees Asakusa. Like Notre Dame, it is ancient, holy, dirty, and 
grand, with pigeons and priests, and bazaars and book-stalls near by 
to match. 

Asakusa is now the name of a district of the city, which anciently 
was a village. The temple is about three miles from the centre of 
the castle, and two from Nihon Bashi, and at the time of its erection 
was a remote suburb. It is but a short distance from the river, and 
Asakusa bridge and Asakusa ferry have been made chiefly for the 
convenience of the pious, gay, and curious, to cross the Sumida River 
to visit the great temple, gardens, and pleasure-grounds, many acres 
in extent. These latter a Japanese temple must always have, whether 
Buddhist or Shinto. In them are fairs, refreshments, booths, eating, 
smoking, dancing, and every gay sport and pleasure known. To the 
Japanese mind there is no incongruity in this placing a temple cheek 
by jowl with a theatre. To cast his cash in the box of offerings, to 
pray,. are but preludes to uproarious mirth or sedate enjoyments. Re- 
ligion and innocent pleasure join hands in Japan. Are the Japanese 
wrong in this ? 

Two grand entrances invite the visitor. One opens to the river. 
The main approach forms the terminus of an avenue that traverses 
the city, and joins the broad street fronting Asakusa at right angles. 
Up and down this street, on either side, for rods, are restaurants and 
houses where the famed singing-girls of Tokio make music, song, and 
dance. The path to the temple is of stone, twelve feet wide, with 
side pavements, upon which are ranged hundreds of booths having on 
sale a gorgeous abundance of toys, dolls, and every thing to delight 
the eyes of babydom. Perpetual Christmas reigns here. "Every 



SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN A PAGAN TEMPLE. 



379 



street in Paris is like Broadway," said a French, mademoiselle to a 
New York lady. Every day at Asakusa is a festival; but on the 
great matsuris, or religious holidays, the throng of gayly dressed hu- 
manity, of all ages, is astonishing. Every one in Japan has heard of 
Asakusa. One never fairly sees open-air Japanese life, except at a 
matsuri. There is nothing strange, however, to the Japanese mind 
in this association of temples and toy-shops. The good bonzes in 
their sermons declare, as the result of their exegesis and meditations, 
that husbands are bound to love their wives, and show it by allowing 
them plenty of pin-money and hair-pins, and to be not bitter against 
them by denying them neat dresses and handsome girdles. The 
farmer who comes to town with his daughter, turns from prayer to 
the purchase of pomatum or a mirror. Every sort of toy, game, hair- 
ornaments in illimitable variety ; combs, rare and beautiful, and cheap 
and plain ; crapes for the neck and bosom ; all kinds of knickknacks, 
notions, and varieties are here ; besides crying babies ; strings of beads 

for prayer; gods of lead, brass, 
and wood ; shrines and family 
altars, sanctums, prayer - books, 
sacred bells, and candles. 

Chapels and special shrines, 
many of them the expiatory gifts 
of rich sinners, lie back of the 
booths on each side of the road- 
way. On their walls hang votive 
tablets and pictures of various 
sorts. In one of the booths, an 
old artist, with his two brushes 
in one hand, is painting one. 
His cheap productions will sell 
for five or ten cents. He looks as though he were laughing at his 
own joke, for his subject is a pictorial pun on the word "fool" (baka: 
ba, a horse ; ka, a stag).* 

* The allusion is to the act of the Chinese prime minister at the court of the. 
Chinese emperor, who was the son of the illustrious builder of the Great Wall. 
He declared that a stag could be called a horse, and a horse a stag. The courtiers 
were compelled to obey him. This is the origin of the Japanese word baka, which 
the Japanese urchins sometimes cry at foreigners, and one of the first words the 
latter learn to throw at the natives. The particular digital gesture of sticking 
the left forefinger in the left side of the mouth is the Japanese equivalent of the 
soliloquy, " What a fool I am !" or the interrogation, " You think I'm a fool, don't 




Artist at Work. 



380 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The incense of smoldering "joss-sticks"* is wafted outward, and 
blends with the savory odors of baking -sponge and griddle -cakes, 
roasting nuts, and the disgusting smell of cuttle-fish fried in oil, made 
from sesame (Sesamum Orientalis). I never knew till I arrived in 
the Land of the Gods why the door of the cave of the Forty Thieves 
opened so easily when Ali Baba uttered the potent words, " Open 
sesame." I know now. Let any one get ten feet to windward of a 
frying-pan full of sesame oil, and he will find it strong enough to 
open twenty doors. There, two lusty fellows are pulling away at a 
colossal rope of barley-sugar candy, now stretching, now twisting, 
now doubling, until the proper consistence and fibre are obtained. 
Down on the ground, at intervals, we find an old woman, or a young 
girl, selling what seem to be little slips of frayed wood, which, dropped 
on water, open into surprising forms of beauty. The uniform trifles 
unfold into variety, displaying a flower, a boat, a tree, a bird, a rat, 
a fisherman, a man, Fuji, a bottle, a cup, a bug, an animal. Some are 
jokes and comic pictures. 

Before the temple proper stands a colossal structure, serving merely 
as a gate-way, of red painted wood, almost seventy feet high. Facing 
us on either side as we enter are the high colored demons Ni-6 (two 
kings), whom we must propitiate. Each is higher than Goliath of 
Gath: one is green, and the other red. "As ugly as sin," is faint 
praise of their hideousness. Their faces and muscles are contorted 
into fanciful corrugations, and their attitude is as though they were 
going to transfix us heretics. Fastened to the grating in front of them 
are straw sandals, such as laborers and rustics wear. Some of these 
are big enough to shoe a megatherium. They are hung up by people 
with sore feet, to propitiate the demons and to seek recovery. In 
front of the gate and under it, in two rows, sit pious beggars, mostly 
women, who beat on hollow shells of wood, like enormous stale clams 
or gaping sleigh-bells, and say prayers for their donors at a low price. 
The faithful drop a few iron cash, or a single copper, to one or more 
of these hags as they pass on. 

Passing within the gate, we are in the temple yard. To the right 
is a huge lavatory, the people washing their hands, and rinsing their 

you ?" The artist is thinking how foolish he is thus to spend his days in painting 
cheap pictures for a precarious means of subsistence. He is thus caricaturing 
himself. 

* Joss is the Chinaman's pronunciation of the Portuguese word Deos— Latin, 
Deus. 



SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN A PAGAN TEMPLE. 



381 



mouths, preparatory to worship. A pagoda rises to the right with its 
seven stories, its heavy eaves fringed with wind-bells, its beams tipped 

with carvings, and its roof 
terminating into a projec- 
tion called the kiu-do (nine 
rings), resembling an enor- 
mous copper turning just 
rolled from the lathe, or a 
corkscrew such as might be 
used to uncork a columbiad. 
To climb to the top is to 
run the risk of dislocating 
the neck, and the view does 
not repay. In time of se- 
vere earthquake, this pago- 
da spire will vibrate like a 
plume on a helmet. Of 
course, in the picture, the 
artist must bring in the 
snow-white cranes, and Fuji. 
On the top is the jewel, or 
sacred pearl, so conspicuous 
in Japanese art and symbol- 
ism, and which, on the coins 
and paper money,the dragon 
ever clutches in his talons. 
On my left stands a large plain frame of wood, on which hang tal- 
lies, or tablets, inscribed with names and sums of money. They are 
those of subscribers to the temple, and the amount of their contribu- 
tions. One, five, and ten dollars are common gifts, and the one hun- 
dred-dollar donor is honored with a larger amount of shingle to ad- 
vertise his religion. Several old women have stands, at which they 
sell holy beans, pious pease, and sanctified rice. These are kept ready 
in tiny earthen saucers. The orthodox buy these, and fling them to 
the cloud of pigeons that are waiting on the temple eaves, and fly, 
whirring down, to feed. Ten thousand sunbeams flash from their 
opaline necks as their pink feet move coquettishly over the ground. 
Two enormous upright bronze lanterns on stone pedestals flank the 
path, and on these flocks of pigeons quickly rise and settle again. 
These pigeons have their home, not only without but within the tem- 




Pagoda Spire, or Kiu-do. (Nishiki-ye.) 



382 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

pie, over the very altars of Great Shaka. Even the pigeon hath found 
a rest where she may lay her young, even thine altars, Great Shaka. 
Their cooing blends with the murmurs of prayer, and the whirring of 
their wings with the chant of the bonzes. 

Besides the pigeons, there are two sacred Albino ponies kept in a 
stable to the left. They are consecrated to the presiding deity, Kua- 
non, Goddess of Mercy. A young girl has the care of them, and they 
are fed by the pious, who, as a religious and meritorious act, buy the 
beans and pease with which the animals are fed. 

The most imposing feature of a Japanese temple is the roof of 
massive black tiles, sweeping up in a parabolic curve of the immense 
surface, which make enormous gables at the side. One is impressed 
with the solidity of the timbers and supports, which are set firmly but 
loosely in stone sockets, and defy the earthquake in a manner that re- 
calls ^Esop's fable of the oak and the reed. We ascend the broad cop- 
per-edged steps to the broader porch, and are on the threshold of the 
great pagan temple, so holy, so noisy, so dirty. Within its penetra- 
lium, we try to feel reverent. How can we, with a crowd of eager, 
curious, dirty faces, with dirty babies behind them, with unclean pig- 
eons whirring above us to the threatened detriment of our hats ? With- 
in is a chaos of votive tablets, huge lanterns, shrines, idols, spit-balls, 
smells, dust, dirt, nastiness, and holiness. Immediately within the door 
stands a huge bronze censer, with a hideous beast rampant upon it 
He seems maddened by the ascending clouds of irritating incense 
that puff out of numerous holes around the edge. The worshipers, 
as they enter, drop an iron or copper cash in the lap of the black- 
toothed crone who keeps the sacred fuel, put a pinch in one of the 
holes, and pass in front of the altar to pray. Around the top of the 
censer are the twelve signs of the Japanese zodiac, in high relief. 
These are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, serpent, horse, goat, mon- 
key, cock, dog, hog. 

The great main altar is protected in front by an iron wire screen. 
Each worshiper, before praying, makes a " heave-offering " of a hand- 
ful of cash into the huge coffer before the altar. Occasionally one, 
with pious intent, throws what we would call a spit-ball at the screen. 
What an idea ! The worshiper writes out his petition, chews it to a 
pulp in his mouth, and throws it at the idol. If it sticks, the omen is 
good, the prayer is heard. Hearing, then, depends on the softness of 
the mass, or the salival ability and dexterity of the thrower. Some 
of the images in the outer shrines are speckled all over with these out- 



SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN A PAGAN TEMPLE. 383 

spittings of pious mouths. The coins and balls might injure the al- 
tar furniture and golden idols, if not protected. 

The space opposite the altar is rilled by praying people of every 
sort. Mothers, maidens, and children, old men and boys, samurai and 
merchant and farmer, country boors, city swells, soldiers in French uni- 
form with sword-bayonets at their side, a la Paris, all fling the coin, 
bow the head, rub the hands above the head. Many use strings of 
beads, like the Roman Catholics. Prayers at the main altar over, the 
devotee may visit one or more of the many side shrines within the 
building. To the right sits the ugly and worn-out god Binzuru (one 
of Buddha's original sixteen disciples), reputed to cure diseases. There 
is a mother with two children rubbing the dirty old wooden head and 
limbs, and then applying the supposed virtue to their own bodies by 
rubbing them. The old idol is polished greasy and black by the at- 
trition of many thousand palms. His nose, ears, eyes, and mouth have 
long since disappeared. We warrant that more people are infected 
than cured by their efforts. 

To the left is a shrine, covered in front by a lattice, to the bars of 
which are tied thousands of slips of paper containing written prayers. 
Flanking the coffer on either side are old men who sell charms, printed 
prayers, beads, prayer-books, and ecclesiastical wares of all sorts. Vo- 
tive tablets are hung on the walls and huge round pillars. Here is 
one, on which is the character, cut from paper, for " man " and " wom- 
an," joined by a padlock, from a pair of lovers, who hope and pray 
that the course of true love may run smooth, and finally flow like a 
river. Here is one from a merchant who promises a gift to the tem- 
ple if his venture succeeds. Scores are memorials of gratitude to 
Kuanon for hearing prayer and restoring the suppliant to health. The 
subject of one picture is the boiler explosion on the steamboat City of 
Yedo, which took place in front of the foreign hotel in Tsukiji, Au- 
gust 12th, 1870, in which one hundred lives were lost. Only a few 
days ago, in Yokohama, I saw the infant son of the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. 
Comes, my fellow-country people, who, with a little English girl, were 
the only foreigners killed. The devotee was saved by the great mercy 
of Kuanon, and hangs up the tablet, as a witness of his gratitude, and 
Kuanon's surpassing favor. Many are from sailors who have survived 
a storm. On the wire screen hang scores of men's greasy top-knots, 
and a few braids of women's hair, cut off on account of vows, and of- 
fered to the honor of Kuanon. Perhaps the deity sees the heart that 
made the offering, and not the rancid and mildewed grease. Above 



384 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

are splendid carvings and paintings of angels. The Buddhist angels 
are always feminine. Among the crowd of religious emblems, there 
stares at you a framed picture of the Pacific Mail Steamship China as 
an advertisement, and near the door of exit, at the left, stands an im- 
mense mirror in a dazzling gilt frame. It is one of the sensational 
attractions to the vulgar, and helps to make up the catchpenny collec- 
tion of miscellanies in this rich temple, whose real estate covers many 
acres of valuable ground. 

Beyond the great space devoted to the public are the various altars 
and gilt images of the deities, sages, and saints of the Buddhist pan- 
theon and calendar. Candles burn, incense floats, and the sacred books 
repose here. The privileged faithful can, for a fee to the fat priests 
who sit behind their account-books, come within the iron wire screen, 
and, kneeling on the clean matting in front of the great altar, may 
pray, or read or chant sacred books, canonical or liturgical ; or, having 
a vow to a particular deity, or wishing to invoke the intercession of a 
special saint, may enter, to kneel remote from the crowd. 

It seems curious, even in Japan, to see men dressed in foreign 
clothes, praying before the gilded and hideous idols, bowing down 
to foxes and demons, and going through all the forms of paganism. 
Clothes do not make a Christian, and yet to our narrow vision there 
seems no agreement between a high hat and a Buddhist temple, no 
cou cord between a black-cloth coat and an idol in ancient robes. 

We leave the temple and descend the steps, glad to get out into 
the only true God's fresh air. From the unnature of superstition to 
the purity of nature, from the pent-up closeness of the priests' temple 
into the boundless freedom of God's glorious creation, how welcome 
the change ! It stirs the pulses of the divine life within us to behold 
how priestcraft and sanctified avarice and blind superstition of ages 
have united, and then to remember how One said, " Have faith in 
God." 

To the left of the temple are gardens famed for their displays of 
flowers in season — the plum-blossoms in February, cherry blooms in 
April, the lotus in July, azaleas in summer, chrysanthemums in Octo- 
ber, camellias in December, and evergreens always. Here are dwarfed 
trees in every shape. Fuji appears over and over again in miniature. 
Tortoises, cats, male foreigners with hats, and females in crinoline, 
houses, wagons, and what not, appear in living forms of green. Tiny 
trees, an inch or two high, balmy pines, oaks and bamboo, cacti, 
striped -grass, rare plants of all varieties known in Japan, are here. 



SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN A PAGAN TEMPLE. 387 

An open chrysanthemum, the crest of the emperor, is emblazoned on 
all the barracks of the soldiers, on their caps, buttons, and banners, 
and on all buildings devoted to governmental purposes. 

In the cultivation of these flowers the native gardeners excel. In 
their limited specialties, the Japanese florists distance those of any 
other country. The borders of the Asakiisa gardens are made of 
clipped tea-plants. Dwarfing, unnatural local enlargement, variegation 
of leaf and petal, the encouragement of freaks of nature by careful 
artificial selection — these are the specialties of the natives of Nippon, 
which have been perfected by the hereditary patience, tact, and labor 
of a thousand years. The guild of florists in Tokio is large and 
wealthy. As the florist father, so is the son. Some of the streets of 
the city are noted for their floral displays and fairs. These are often 
given at night, the street being lighted by candles, as in the picture. 

The temple and the gardens are not the only sights at Asakiisa. 
The antiquary may revel in deciphering the scores of inscriptions in 
Sanskrit, Japanese, and Chinese. Most of these are commemorative 
of religious events; some are prayers, some are quotations from ca- 
nonical books, some are sacred hymns. The stones are of granite, 
of slate, and of gray-stone. Bronze and stone images of Buddha are 
numerous ; some with aureole, and finger lifted ; some with hands or 
legs crossed, and thumbs joined meditatively. All wear the serene 
countenance of the sage in Nirvana. Around the base of nearly all 
are heaps of pebbles, placed there as evidence of prayers offered. In 
one shrine little earthen pots of salt are placed as offerings. A " pray- 
ing machine " — a stone wheel in a stone post — stands near. In one 
octagon temple are ranged the stone effigies of the five hundred origi- 
nal disciples of Buddha. Again we light on a crowd of stone idols, 
on which are pasted bits of paper, containing a picture or a prayer. 
Some of them are as full of labels as an apothecary's shop. Many 
have smoking incense-sticks before them, stuck in a bed of ashes accu- 
mulated from former offerings. In one building to the south-east of 
the main temple is a curious collection of idols, which attract attention 
from the fact of their being clean. 

Three idols, representing assistant torturers to Ema, the Lord of 
Hell, painted in all colors and gilded as gorgeously as cheap ginger- 
bread, stand in theatrical attitudes. One wields a sword, one a pen, 
and one a priest's staff. All have their heads in an aureole of red 
flames. The feet of the first, a green monster like a deified caterpillar, 
rests his foot on an imp of the same color, having two clawed toes on 



388 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

his feet, and two fangs in his mouth. Under the second writhes a 
flesh-colored devil, holding up an ink-stone, ready for the use of the 
idol, who may be a Japanese Saturday Reviewer. The third, with an 
indigo face, having a priest's staff, treads on a sky-blue devil. In the 
middle of the stone-floored room is a revolving shrine, having many 
closed doors, and containing sacred treasures of some sort. All over 
the crowded grounds are tea-booths with the usual charcoal fire, copper 
boiler, kettle, cup-rack, sweetmeats, and smiling, powdered, well-dress- 
ed damsel, who invites the passer-by to rest, drink a cup of tea, and 
part with a trifle as gift. 

At the north end are ranged the archery galleries, also presided over 
by pretty black-eyed Dianas, in paint, powder, and shining coiffure. 
They bring you tea, smile, talk nonsense, and giggle ; smoke their 
long pipes with tiny bowls full of mild, fine-cut tobacco ; puff out 
the long white whiffs from their flat-bridged noses ; wipe the brass 
mouth-piece, and offer it to you ; and then ask you leading and very 
personal questions without blushing. The bows are of slender bam- 
boo strips, two feet long, with rests for the shaft. The arrows are of 
cherry-wood, six inches long, bone-tipped, and feathered red, blue, or 
white. Two or three targets hang in front of a square drum, flanked 
by red cushions. A sharp click on the hard target, the boom of the 
drum, or the deadened sound of the struck cushion, tell the grades of 
success. Full-grown, able-bodied men are the chief patrons of these 
places of pleasure, and many can find amusement for hours at such 
play. 

Let no one visit Asakusa without seeing the so-called " wax-works," 
though there is very little wax in the show. In one of the buildings, 
to the rear and left of the main temple, are thirty-five tableaux, in life- 
size figures, of the miracles wrought by Kuanon, or wondrous events 
in the lives of her pious devotees. There are thirty-three great tem- 
ples in Japan, dedicated to Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy. Pious pil- 
grims often make the pilgrimage, visiting each of these shrines. The 
tableaux at Asakusa are thought by many foreign critics to excel in 
expression the famous collection of Madame Tussaud in London, an 
opinion which the writer shares. They are all the handiwork of one 
artist, who visited the most celebrated shrines of Kuanon, and, struck 
with the marvelous power and mercy of the god, wished to show to 
the youth of his country the benefit of trusting in and praying to 
him or her. The figure of Kuanon is, in some representations, like 
that of a gentle and lovely lady. In the outside tableau, the image of 



SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN A PAGAN TEMPLE. 389 

Kuanon is drawn out in public to stay a plague, which is accomplish- 
ed by the mercy and favor of the god. In the first tableau inside, a 
learned lady prays to Kuanon, and is heard. The second tableau rep- 
resents Kuanon appearing in the form of a beautiful woman to reward 
a diligent priest ; the third, a young girl suddenly restored to health 
by the favor of Kuanon ; the fourth, Kuanon appearing in the form 
of a little peasant girl to a noble of the mikado's court ; the fifth, a 
hungry robber desecrating the temple ; and a certain suggestive paint- 
ing to the left, in which demons and a red-hot cart, with wheels and 
axles of fire, are pictured above the robber, tells what is to become of 
him. In the sixth, a noble of the mikado's court overcomes and binds 
the thunder-god, or demon, through the power of Kuanon. In the 
seventh, a woman is saved from shipwreck because she sung a hymn to 
Kuanon during the tempest. In the eighth, a devout priest, fearing 
yet bold, goes to talk to Ema, the Lord of Hell. The ninth repre- 
sents an old man, one of the Hojo family, writing a prayer -poem. 
The tenth represents a pious damsel, who worshiped Kuanon, never 
killed any animals, and saved the life of a crab which a man was go- 
ing to kill : afterward, a snake, transforming itself into human shape, 
came to seize her, but a multitude of grateful crabs appeared and res- 
cued her, biting the reptile to death : this was by the order of Kua- 
non. In the eleventh, a devout worshiper, by prayer, overcomes and 
kills a huge serpent that troubled the neighborhood. In the twelfth, 
a diligent copyist of the sacred books beguiles his time by rewarding 
little children with cakes for bringing him pebbles, for every one of 
which he transcribes a character. The baby on the back of the little 
girl is asleep ; and the imitation of baby-life is wonderful, and in re- 
spect to one or two details more truthful than elegant. In the thir- 
teenth, Kuanon, having appeared on earth in female form, goes to 
heaven, taking the picture of a boy, who afterward grows up to be a 
celebrated priest. In the fourteenth, a pious woman falls from a lad- 
der, but is unhurt. In the fifteenth, a man suffering grievously from 
headache is directed to the spot where the skull which belonged to 
his body in a previous state of existence is being split open by the 
root of a tree growing through the eye-socket. On removing it, he is 
relieved of his headache. In the nineteenth, a good man vanquishes a 
robber. In the twentieth, the babe of a holy farmer's wife, who is out 
at work, is saved from a wolf by miraculous rays defending the child. 
In the twenty-first, Kuanon appears to heal a sick girl with a wand 
and drops of water. In the twenty-second, a holy man buys and sets 



390 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

free a tortoise about to be killed for food. Three days afterward his 
child falls overboard, and is apparently lost, but after a while returns 
safely on the back of the grateful reptile. In the twenty-fourth, a re- 
tainer of a noble is ordered to kill his master's son for disobedience to 
him. The servant, unable, through love of his master's son, to do it, 
kills his own son instead. The tableau represents him mourning over 
his son's gory head. His master's son, in remorse, became a priest. 
In the twenty-fifth, a good man is saved from robbers by his dog. In 
the twenty-sixth, a man who had his cargo of rice confiscated for his 
refusal to give the priest his share, repented of his obduracy, and re- 
ceived heavenly evidence of his pardon in a new cargo of rice sent 
by Kuanon. In the twenty-seventh, the son of a court noble breaks 
a precious ink-stone. His father, in a fit of anger, kills him. The 
horrified attendant becomes a priest. In the twenty-eighth, a pious 
recluse is saved from starvation by a miraculous leg of venison. In 
the twenty-ninth, a mountain demon pursues an evil-doer. In the 
thirtieth, a pious wood-cutter hears heavenly music, and Kuanon ap- 
pears to him. In the thirty-first, a worshiper of Kuanon is wounded 
by robbers, thrown into the river, and is accidentally brought up in a 
fisherman's net. Having an image of Kuanon in his bosom, he is re- 
suscitated, and lives to bless his preserver. In the thirty-third, a mer- 
maid appears to a passer-by, and prays him to erect a temple to Kua- 
non. This having been done, the mermaid is reborn into a higher 
state of existence. In the thirty-fourth, Kuanon appears to a traveler. 
The last is a moving tableau, representing a court noble and lady. 

Extreme kindness to animals is characteristic of the Japanese. It 
is the result of the gentle doctrines of Buddha. Several of the mira- 
cle-figures teach the law of kindness to brutes. It is sometimes car- 
ried into a sentimentalism almost maudlin. My jin-riki-sha puller 
makes a detour, out of his way, round a sleeping dog or bantam, 
when the lazy animal might fairly take its chances. When a man 
believes that the soul of his grandfather may be transmigrating 
through a cur, however mangy, or a chick, however skinny, he is not 
going to cause another metempsychosis by murdering the brute, if he 
can help it. Killing a wounded horse to put him out of misery, or in 
useless old age, is never practiced, the idea being too cruel to be en- 
tertained. 



STUDIES IN THE CAPITAL. 391 



STUDIES IN THE CAPITAL. 

The foreigner who traces upon his globe or map the outlines of the 
island empire of Japan, conceives of it as a long, narrow, insular strip 
of land, stretching from north to south. Seeing that Yezo is in such 
high, and Kiushiu in such low latitude, he thinks of Yedo and Naga- 
saki as lying at the two ends of the magnetic needle. To the native, 
they lie in the line of the sun, the one at its rising, the other at its set- 
ting. The reason for this conception of the native, which is thus in 
rectilinear opposition to that of the foreigner, lies, not in the supposed 
fact that the Japanese do every thing in a contrary manner from our- 
selves, or because the images on his retina are not reversed as on ours, 
but because he has a truer knowledge of his country's topography than 
the alien. The latter knows of Japan only as a strip of land described 
in his dogmatic text-books, a fraction in his artificial system ; the for- 
mer knows it as he actually walks, by dwelling on its soil and looking 
at the sun, the lay of the land, and the pole star. To him, Tokio lies 
in the east, Choshiu in the west, Hakodate in the north, and Satsuma 
in the south. 

The native conception of locality in the mikado's empire is the 
true one. A glance at the map will show that Yezo and a portion of 
Hondo lie, indeed, inclosed in a narrow line drawn north and south. 
Japan may be divided into inhabited and uninhabited land, and Yezo 
must fall within the latter division. Hence, only that part above the 
thirty-sixth parallel may be called Northern Japan. From Yedo to 
Nagasaki is the main portion of the empire, in point of historical im- 
portance, wealth, and population. Between the thirty-third and thir- 
ty-sixth, or within three parallels of latitude, on a belt a little over two 
hundred miles wide, stretches from east to west, for six hundred miles, 
the best part of Japan. 

Within this belt lies more than a majority of the largest cities, best 
ports, richest mines, densest centres of population, classic localities, 
magnificent temples, holy places, tea -plantations, silk districts, rice- 



392 THE MIKABO'S EMPIRE. 

fields, and manufactures. Here, also, have been developed, in times 
past, the nation's greatest treasures — the best blood, the commanding 
minds, and the men that have ruled Japan. 

• It is interesting to note the shifting of the scenes in the drama of 
Japanese history. In the most ancient times, the ablest men of ac- 
tion and intellect were produced in Yamato, or in the Kinai. In the 
Middle Ages, they arose in the Kuanto. At the opening of modern 
history, they sprung from the Tokaido (Mino, Owari, Mikawa). In 
the latest decades, they came from Kiushiu and the south (Choshiu, 
Satsuma, Tosa, and Hizen). 

An inspection of the map will show a striking configuration of the 
land, on the southern coast of Hondo, adapting and ordaining it as 
the site for the great bulk of the nation's intellect, intelligence, popu- 
lation, and wealth. From Kadzusa on the extreme east, to Choshiu 
on the extreme west, are found in succession a series of bays, at the 
head of each of which stands a large city. On the first is the city of 
Tokio (population, 925,000); on the second, Odawara (20,000); on 
the third, Hamamatsu (50,000) ; on the fourth, Nagoya (400,000) ; 
on the fifth, Ozaka (600,000) ; on the sixth, Hiogo (60,000) ; on the 
seventh, Hiroshima (100,000); on the eighth, Shimonoseki (10,000). 
These lie east and west of each other. These are and were all flour- 
ishing cities, but until Iyeyasii's time Yedo was but a village. 

It was a bold stroke of policy to make the obscure place the seat 
of government. It seemed very much to the people of that day and 
country as it would to us were our capital removed from Washington 
to Duluth. 

The general shape of Tokio is that of an egg, with the point to the 
south, the butt to the north. The yolk of this egg is the castle, or 
O Shiro, a work of vast proportions. 

The traveler in our land of steam, in which men are too few and 
too valuable to be machines, sees heavy work done by the derrick and 
the engine, and can reckon to a fraction the equivalent for human 
muscle stored up in a pound of coal. Before the labor of the mediae- 
val masons, he wonders how the pygmies of those days could build 
such stupendous works as astonish the tourist in Egypt, India, As- 
syria, China, and Japan, or raise colossal stones, or transport them in 
positions hundreds of miles from their home in the quarry. 

Of architectural works in Japan, the torii, the yashiki, and the shiro, 
or castle, may be said to be original products. The pagoda is from 
China. Though far beyond the structures of Egypt or India in ass- 



STUDIES IN THE CAPITAL. 393 

thetic merit, the Japanese castles challenge wonder at their vast extent, 
and the immense size of the stones in their walls. In the castle of 
Ozaka, built by Hideyoshi, some of the stones are forty feet long, ten 
feet high, and several feet thick. In the castle of Tokio, in the cita- 
del or highest point, the walls have many stones sixteen feet long, six 
wide, and three thick. These were brought from near Hiogo, over 
two hundred miles distant. 

In Asiatic countries labor is cheap and abundant. What the Amer- 
ican accomplishes by an engine and a ton of coal, the exponent of so 
many foot-pounds, or horse-power, the Asiatic accomplishes by thou- 
sands of human arms. A signal instance of the quick triumph of 
muscle came under my own observation while in Tokio. 

A foreigner in the employ of the Japanese Government was con- 
sulted in relation to the choice of a site for a model farm, and was 
shown several eligible places, one of which was included within the 
grounds of an ex-daimio, which had been left for years to the rank 
overgrowth, which, together with the larger trees and bushes, made the 
soil so rooty, and the whole place so unpromising to the foreigner, 
that he declared the site was utterly unfit ; that several years would be 
required to bring it into any thing like proper condition for tillage. 
He then drove off to examine another proposed site. But American 
ways of thinking were, in this case, at fault. 

The Japanese officer in charge immediately and quietly hired eight 
hundred laborers to clear and smooth the land. They worked in re- 
lays, night and day. In one week's time he showed the American "a 
new site," with which he was delighted. It was chosen for the model 
farm. It was the same site he had first glanced at. The potential 
energy lay in the fact that the land, worthless as real estate, being the 
property of the official, could be sold to the Government for a model 
farm at the highest of fancy prices, paid out of the national treasury. 
The actual energy of eight hundred pairs of arms developed a wilder- 
ness into leveled farm-fields within a week. 

The yashiki is a product of architecture distinctively Japanese. 
Its meaning is " spread-out house." It is such a homogeneous struct- 
ure that it strikes the eye as having been cut out of a solid block. It 
is usually in the form of a hollow square, inclosing from ten thou- 
sand to one hundred and sixty thousand square feet of ground. The 
four sides of the square within are made up of four rows, or four un- 
broken lines of houses. In the centre are the mansions of the daimio 
and his ministers. The lesser retainers occupy the long houses which 



394 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

form the sides of the square. The space is filled up within with gar- 
dens, both for use and pleasure, recreation-grounds, target walks, and 
kura, or fire-proof warehouses. Mito's grounds were of marvelous 
beauty. The yashiki, on the street front, presents the appearance of a 
continuous house on stone foundations, with rows of wooden barred 
or grated windows. 

The cut represents an " evening view " of Kasumiya Street, a slope 
between the yashiki of the Daimio of Ogaki, in Mino, on the left, and 
that of Hiroshima, in Aki, on the right; and of Sakurada Avenue. 
Each of these proud lords, in erecting his mansion, found that his ri- 
val was building as high and fine a stone foundation as he was. Aki 
was determined to get higher than Ogaki, lest a fudai's windows 
should look down on a kokushiu's lattice ; while Ogaki was bound to 
" get even " with Aki. The rival masonry might have grown higher, 
had not the shogun ordered them to desist. 

All around the yashikis ran a ditch, or moat, from four to twelve 
feet wide, usually of running water. Most of the walls were faced 
with square tiles, fastened diagonally, presenting the appearance of 
thousands of black lozenges, with rounded ridges of white plaster 
about three inches high. To break the monotony of the street front, 
there was one great roofed gate, for the lord and master, flanked with 
porters' lodges, and a smaller one, or postern, on another side, for serv- 
ants and retainers. It was a very important point of etiquette as to 
who should or should not enter through the main gate. On no ac- 
count would any one, unless of very high rank, be admitted in a ve- 
hicle of any sort. At a certain gate, called Gejo, leading to the hon 
maru, or citadel of the Yedo castle, all daimios were obliged to dis- 
mount from their palanquins and walk. The abbot of the temple of 
Zozoji, at Shiba, as a mark of high rank, could enter in a palanquin. 
Such a privilege was equal to a patent of nobility. 

The castle-moats, on varying levels, to make a current and prevent 
stagnation, were supplied with water brought in stone-lined aqueducts 
from the Tonegawa, nine miles distant. In the moats it varied from 
four to twelve feet in depth. The scarp and counter-scarp were faced 
with stone, and where the castle was on high ground the sloping em- 
bankments were sodded, the water flowing scores of feet below. In 
the shallow parts, lotus-flowers grew luxuriantly in summer, and in 
winter thousands of water-fowl, ducks, geese, storks, and herons made 
it their secure home, the people never harming them — a statement al- 
most incredible to a foreign sportsman. A number of the shogun's 



STUDIES IN THE CAPITAL. 397 

swans added grace and beauty to the peaceful scene. It was forbid- 
den to fire a gun within five ri of the castle. I wondered how for- 
eign sportsmen could resist the temptation. 

Let the reader imagine a space of several miles square covered with 
yashikis. To walk through the streets inside the castle enceinte was 
a monotonous and gloomy task. There was nothing to break the dull 
uniformity of black or white tiles and windows, except here and there 
a sworded samurai or a procession. Occasional variety was obtained 
in a very large yashiki by erecting a wall around the entire inclosure, 
and building the houses inside. This made the monotony worse, 
since the eye had no relief in looking at windows, in which, perchance, 
might be a pot of flowers, or peeping eyes. It scarcely added to the 
cheerfulness to meet no common folk, but only proud and pompous 
men with two swords, the mark of the Japanese gentleman of feudal 
days. 

The winter head-dress of the Japanese of both sexes is a black 
cloth cap, fitting close to the skull, with long flaps, which were tied 
around over the neck, mouth, and nose, exposing only the eyes. The 
wearing of this cap made a most remarkable difference, according to 
sex. The male looked fiendishly malignant, like a Spanish brigand, 
the effect of two scowling eyes being increased by the two swords at 
his belt. The phrase " he looked daggers at me " had a new signif- 
icance. With the women, however, the effect was the reverse. A 
plump, well-wrapped form lost no comeliness ; and when one saw two 
sparkling eyes and a suggestion of rosy cheeks, the imagination was 
willing to body forth the full oval of the Japanese beauty. 

A dinner given in my honor by the ex-prince of Echizen, in his own 
yashiki, enabled me to see in detail one of the best specimens of this 
style of mansion. Like all the large clans and kokushiu daimios, 
Echizen had three yashikis — the Superior, Middle, and Inferior. In 
the second lived the ordinary clansmen, while to the third the serv- 
ants and lower grade of samurai are assigned. Some of these yashi- 
kis covered many acres of ground ; and the mansions of the Go Sanke 
families and the great clans of Satsuma, Kaga, Choshiu, and Chikuzen 
are known at once upon the map by their immense size and com- 
manding positions. Within their grounds are groves, shrines, culti- 
vated gardens, fish-ponds, hillocks, and artificial landscapes of unique 
and surpassing beauty. The lord of the mansion dwelt in a central 
building, approached from the great gate by a wide stone path and 
grand portico of keyaki-wood. Long, wide corridors, laid with soft 

26 



398 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

mats, led to the master's chamber. All the wood-work, except certain 
portions, stood in virgin grain like watered silk, except where relieved 
here and there by a hard gleam of black lacquer-like enamel. The 
walls, gorgeously papered with gold, silver, or fanciful and colored 
designs, characteristic of Japanese art — among which the pine, plum, 
and cherry tree, the bamboo, lily, the stork, tortoise, and lion, or fans, 
were the favorites. The sliding doors, or partitions, of which three 
sides of a Japanese room is composed, were decorated with paintings. 
Some of the finest specimens of Japanese art I ever saw were in the 
yashikis of Tokio. 

The plan of the city of Yedo, conceived by Iyeyasii, was simply 
that of a great camp. This one idea explains its centre, divisions, and 
relations. In the heart of this vast encampment was the general's 
head-quarters — a well-nigh impregnable castle. On the most eligible 
and commanding sites were the tents of his chief satraps. These 
tents were yashikis. The architectural prototype of a yashiki is a 
Japanese tent. In time of war, the general's head-quarters are sur- 
rounded by a roofless curtain of wide breadths of canvas stretched 
perpendicularly on posts, presenting a square front like a wall outside, 
and a roomy area within, having in its centre the general's tent. In 
place of this tent put a house ; instead of the canvas stretch continu- 
ous long houses, forming a hollow square inclosing the mansion, and 
you have the yashiki. Shallow observers — foreigners, of course — 
on first seeing these stretched canvas screens, supposed they were 
"forts," and the crests (mon) of the general, "port -holes" for can- 
non ! Yedo, the camp city of the East, was full of these tents, am- 
plified and made permanent in wood and stone. 

These edifices made the glory of old Yedo, but Tokio sees fewer 
year by year and fire by fire. They were the growth of the necessi- 
ties of feudalism. The new age of Japan does not need them, and 
the next decade, that shall see thousands swept away, will see none 
rebuilt ; and the traveler will look upon a yashiki as one of the many 
curiosities of Old Japan. Yedo was the city of the Tokugawas, and 
the camp of clans. Its architectural products sprung from the soil of 
feudalism. Tokio is the national capital, the city of the mikado, and 
its edifices are at once the exponents of modern necessities and en- 
lightened nationality. 



AMONG THE MEN OF NEW JAPAN. 



VI 

AMONG THE MEN OF NEW JAPAN. 

I spent from January 3d to February 16th, 1871, in the new capi- 
tal of Japan, visiting the famous places in the city and suburbs, seeing 
the wonderful sights, and endeavoring by study and questioning to 
reduce to order the myriad impressions that were made upon all my 
senses like a mimic cannonade. During two weeks I taught as a vol- 
unteer in the Imperial College. At the house of the superintendent I 
met many of the officials in the educational and other departments, 
learning their ideas and methods of thinking and seeing. Among my 
novel employments was, upon one occasion, the searching of Wheaton's 
and other works on international law for rules and precedents cover- 
ing an imminent case of hostilities in Yokohama harbor. The captain 
of a French man-of-war, resurrecting one of the exploded regulations 
of the republic of 1795, was threatening to seize a German merchant 
ship, which had been sold to the Japanese, and the officials of the 
Foreign Office had come to their long-trusted American friend for ad- 
vice and the law's precedents. It came to nothing, however. No seiz- 
ure was made, nor hostile gun fired. The furore of traveling abroad was 
then at fever-heat, and thousands of young men hoped to be sent to 
study abroad, at government expense, where tens only could be chosen. 
I made a call on Terashima Munenori, the Vice-minister of Foreign 
Affairs, then in Tsukiji : presenting letters from Mr. Hatakeyama Yo- 
shinari, I was received very kindly. Iwakura (to whom I bore letters 
from his son) and Mr. Okubo at that time were on an important 
political mission to Satsuma, Choshiu, and Tosa, sent thither by the 
mikado. The ex-Prince of Echizen gave an entertainment in my hon- 
or at his mansion. The daimios of Uwajima and Akadzuki, and sev- 
eral of their Tear 6s (ministers), were present at the dinner. He present 
ed me with his photograph, with some verses, of the making of which 
he was very fond. Mr. Arinori Mori, a young samurai of the Satsuma 
clan, and a great friend of Iwakura, called to see me, and received let- 
ters of introduction to my friends in America. He was then in na- 



400 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

tive dress, wearing the traditional two swords, the abolition of which 
he had in vain advocated some months before. He had just received 
his appointment as charge d'affaires of Japan in the United States. 
Messrs. Mori, and Sameshima — since charge d'affaires at Paris, now 
(1876) Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in Tokio — stood so high in the 
confidence of Iwakura that they were dubbed, in the political slang 
of the capital, " the legs of Iwakura." Mr. Katsu Awa, though absent 
in Shidztioka, sent me a very pleasant letter of welcome to Japan. I 
enjoyed a delightful call on Mr. Kanda, the ex-President or Speaker 
of the House of Assembly, in which Mr. Mori had argued reforms, 
the second deliberative body that had been called into existence, ac- 
cording to the oath of the mikado in Kioto, in 1868, that representa- 
tive institutions should be formed. I found Mr. Kanda a student of 
English and American literature, and an earnest thinker. His son, a 
bright lad, was to accompany Mr. Mori to America. I also met a num- 
ber of the prominent and rising men of the country, especially those 
who had been active in the late revolution. The mikado was begin- 
ning to ride out in public ; and I saw at various times a number of the 
kuge, both ladies and gentlemen, in their ancient, gorgeous costumes, 
with their retainers and insignia. I witnessed, also, a grand review of 
the imperial army, a wrestling - match, exhibitions of acrobatics and 
jugglery, theatrical performances, and many things in the political, 
social, and military world that will never again be seen in Japan. I 
visited the first hospital opened in Tokio, by Matsumoto, and the ex- 
cellent school of Fukuzawa, rival of the Imperial College. None of 
the large modern buildings in European style, which now adorn the 
city, were then built. The city was then more Yedo than Tokio. 

I repeatedly visited Oji, so often described by Oliphant and others ; 
Meguro, near which are the graves of the lovers, "Grompachi and 
Komurasaki;" Takanawa, the Mecca of Japanese loyalty, where are 
the tombs and statues of the forty -seven ronins, and of their lord, 
whom they died to avenge ; Kame Ido, the memorial of the deified 
martyr, Sugawara Michizane ; Shiba, Uyeno, Mukojima, and the places 
so well known to residents and tourists, the sight of which but added 
zest to an appetite for seeing all that is dear to a Japanese, which a 
residence of years failed to cloy. I was several times at Zempukuji 
(Temple of Peace and Happiness), one of the oldest shrines of the 
Shin sect of Buddhists, founded by Shinran himself, who with his 
own hands planted the wonderful old jinko-tree, which still flourishes. 
Within the temple grounds were the buildings of the legation of the 



AMONG THE MEN OF NEW JAPAN. 401 

United States of America. Here had dwelt successively Ministers 
Townsend Harris, Robert H. Pruyn, and General Van Valkenbergh. 
United States Vice-consul C. 0. Shepherd was then occupying the 
premises. I noticed a somewhat dusty portrait of Franklin Pierce 
hung on the walls of one of the inner empty rooms. The one bright 
oasis spot during his barren administration was the success of Perry's 
mission, and the opening of Japan to the world. The glory of the 
great United States had been here maintained, by its Government 
never paying any rent for its tenantry of buildings, and by extorting 
"indemnities" for every accidental fire, for every provoked injury, 
and even for every man killed in the open and active hostilities of 
war, and in joining the governments of Europe in keeping the feeble 
empire crushed under diplomacy, backed by ships and cannon. 

One of the most important persons for me was a good interpreter. 
A tongue was more than a right arm. To procure one of first-rate 
abilities was difficult. When the embassy, sent out by the ill-starred 
Ii Kamon no kami, visited Philadelphia, I had frequently seen a lively 
young man whom every one called " Tommy," who had made a de- 
cidedly pleasant impression upon the ladies and the Americans gen- 
erally. " Tommy " was at this time in Tokio. The Echizen officers 
went to him and asked him to accept the position of interpreter, at a 
salary of one thousand dollars, gold, per annum. This was tempting 
pay to a Japanese ; but the f oreignized Tommy preferred metropolitan 
life, and the prospect of official promotion, to regular duties in an in- 
terior province. They then sought among the corps of interpreters in 
the Imperial College. The choice fell upon Iwabuchi (rock -edge), 
who, fortunately for me, accepted, and we were introduced. This 
gentleman was about twenty years old, with broad, high forehead, lux- 
uriant hair cut in foreign style, keen, dancing black eyes, and blushing 
face. He was a ronin samurai of secondary rank, and rather well edu- 
cated. His father had been a writing-master in Sakura, Shimosa, and 
Iwabuchi was an elegant writer. He wore but one sword. He was 
of delicate frame, his face lighted by intellect, softened by his habitual 
meekness, but prevented by a trace of slyness from being noble. He 
seemed the very type of a Japanese gentleman of letters. He was as 
gentle as a lady. In his checkered experience at Hakodate and other 
cities, he had brushed against the Briton, the Yankee, the French- 
man, and the Russian. At first shy and retiring, he warmed into 
friendship. In his merry moods he would astonish me by humming 
familiar tunes, and recall a whole chapter of home memories by sing' 



402 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ing snatches of American college and street songs. In his angry 
moods, when American steel struck Japanese flint, his eyes would 
snap fire and his frame quiver. For over a year Iwabuchi was inval- 
uable to me, until my own articulation became bi-lingual; but from 
first to last, notwithstanding occasional friction, arising from the dif- 
ference in American and Japanese psychology, we continued, and re- 
main, fast friends. 

My business with the officers of the Echizen clan was finished. I 
was engaged to teach the physical sciences in the city of Fukui, the 
capital of the province, two hundred miles west of Tokid, and twelve 
miles from the Sea of Japan. In accordance with custom observed 
"between foreigners and Japanese, we made a contract, which, after 
passing the inspection and receiving the approval of the Guai Mu Sho 
(Office of Foreign Affairs), was written out in duplicate in imposing 
Chinese characters, and in plain English. I agreed to teach chemistry 
and physics for the space of three years, and " not to enter into any 
trading operations with native merchants." The insertion of a comic 
clause, very funny indeed to the American, but quite justifiable by 
the bitter experience of the Japanese, was, that the teacher must not 
get drunk. 

They, on their side, agreed to pay my salary ; to build me a house 
after the European style ; and after three years to return me safely to 
Yokohama ; to hand my corpse over to the United States Consul if I 
should die, or carry me to him should I be disabled through sickness. 
Nothing was said concerning religion in any reference whatever, but 
perfect freedom from all duties whatsoever was guaranteed me on Sun- 
days ; and I had absolute liberty to speak, teach, or do as I pleased in 
my own house. 

As an illustration of the extreme jealousy with which the mikado's 
ministers guarded the supremacy of the national government, the first 
draft of the contract, made by myself, was rejected by the Foreign Of- 
fice because I had written " the government of Fukui," instead of the 
" local authorities," a correction which appeared in the final docu- 
ments. 

I made the acquaintance of several of the daimios, and many re- 
tainers of various clans. A Fukui samurai, whom I shall call Daremo, 
and who knew to a rung the exact status of every one on the social 
ladder, always informed me as to the rank of the various personages 
whom I met as host or guest. I bought the latest copy of the Bu 
Kuan (Mirror of the Military Families), which he explained and trans* 



AMONG THE MEN OF NEW JAPAN. 403 

lated for me. In discussing each one, his nose rose and fell with the 
figures before him. "That gentleman is only a Tcaro of a 10,000 koku 
dahnio." "This is himself, a fudai daimio of 15,000 koku." With 
profound indifference, I would be informed that the person who called 
on me to inquire after his brother in New York was " merely a samu- 
rai of a 30,000 koku clan." That gentleman whose politeness so im- 
pressed me was "a hatamoto of 800 koku ; but he was very poor since 
the restoration." Daremo's congratulations were showered thick and 
fast when I dined with the kokushiu Echizen (360,000 koku), and 
Uwajima (100,000 koku), with five or six karos. He also translated 
for me the letters I received from distinguished Japanese officers. 
With the aid of the Bu Kuan and Daremo, I was soon able to dis- 
tinguish many of the rising and falling men of Japan. 

I had seen the great objects of interest to a tourist. I had feasted 
my eyes on novelty and a new life, yet the freshness of continual glad 
surprise was not yet lost. I had seen the old glory of Yedo in ruins, 
and the new national life of Japan emerging from Tokio in chaos. I 
had stood face to face with paganism for the first time. I had felt 
the heart of Japan pulsing with new life, and had seen her youth 
drinking at the fountains of Western science. I had tasted the hospi- 
tality of one of the " beginners of a better time." I had learned the 
power of the keen sword. For the first time I had experience of pa- 
ganism, feudalism, earthquakes, Asiatic life and morality. I had seen 
how long contact with heathen life and circumstances slowly disinte- 
grates the granite principles of eternal right, once held by men reared 
in a more bracing moral atmosphere. I met scores of white men, 
from Old and Xew England, who had long since forgotten the differ- 
ence between right and wrong. I had seen also the surface of Japan. 
I was glad to go into the interior. I bid good-bye to Tokio, and 
went to Yokohama to take the steamer to Kobe, whence I should go, 
via Lake Biwa, and over the mountains to the city of the Well of 
Blessing, Fukui. 

Our party made rendezvous at a native hotel. It was to be both my 
sscort and following. The former consisted of my interpreter, Iwa- 
buchi, one of the teachers of English in the university ; Nakamura, the 
soldier-guard, who had fought in the late civil war ; and the treasurer, 
Emori, a polished gentleman, and shrewd man of the Japanese world. 
There were two servants, and, with my own cook and his wife, we 
made up a party of eight persons, with as many characters and dispo- 
sitions as faces. The ship to take us to Kobe was one of the fine 



404 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



steamers of the Pacific Mail Company's fleet, the Oregonian. As sev- 
eral days would elapse before her departure, I made a visit to Kanaza- 
wa, Kamakura, Enoshima, and Fujisawa, with Nakamura, and an Amer- 
ican friend who spoke Japanese fluently. That visit was afterward re- 
peated many times. Every spot made famous by Yoritomo, Yoshit- 
sune, Semman and Kugio, the Hojo, Nitta Yoshisada, Nichiren, and the 
Ashikaga, was seen over and over again, until the life of old Japan 
became as vivid to me as the thrilling scenes of oar own late war. 
Besides the architectural remains of these classic places, is a rich mu- 
seum of armor, weapons, and other mediaeval antiquities in the temple 
on Tsuruga-oka, in Kamakura. 

On our ride back, Fuji, all in white, loomed up grandly. A flurry 
of snow added to its beauty. In such a snow-shower the artist must 
have made the spirited sketch here reproduced. Snow rarely falls on 
the Tokaido to a depth greater than two inches, and usually neither 
hoof nor sandal, as in the cut, sinks beneath its level. The Japanese, 
however, make a great fuss over a little cold. They go about with 
their hands in their sleeves, which stick out like the wings of a trussed 
turkey, repeating " samui, samui " (cold, cold), until it loses all origi- 
nality. 




Travelers on the Tokaido in a Snow-storm. Fuji san. 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 405 



VII. 

IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 

The weather was rough as we embarked, late in the afternoon of 
February 2 2d, on the Oregonian, and steamed down the Bay of Yedo. 
At night, the fixed white light in the stone tower on Cape Idzu, visi- 
ble twenty miles, reminded us of the new order of things. Of old a 
wood-fire blazed on the promontory. The iV«7,did not yet know the 
fate to befall her.* 

The next day was foggy, and mal de mer held high revel among 
the passengers. The Oregonian was true to the reputation of its 
namesake given by Bryant — " where rolls the mighty Oregon." My 
own thoughts were less poetic. My feelings are best described by 
the Japanese proverb, "A sea-voyage is an inch of hell." 

About midnight we rounded the promontory of Kii, where Jimmu 
passed centuries ago. Its splendid light-house, on a promontory one 
hundred and thirty feet high, on O Island, holds a revolving white 
light, alternately flashing and being eclipsed during every minute. 
is a good harbor for wind-bound junks, and the fishermen here are 
noted whalers, hunting whales successfully with nets and spears. The 
light on Cape Shiwo, one hundred and fifty-five feet above water, may 
be seen for twenty miles. Ships from China make this point night or 
day. 

The three officers of our party had been empowered to take cabin 
passage with their foreign charge ; but such a foolish waste of money 
was not to be thought of. To pay forty dollars for forty-eight hours, 
and three hundred and forty-two geographical miles of nausea in a 
state-room, was not according to their ideas of happiness. Far better 

* On the night of the 20th of March, 1874, at 10.30 p.m., the French M. M. 
steamer Ml, having on board one hundred and eleven persons, and the Japanese 
articles on exhibition at Vienna, her engines being out of order, and the currents 
unusually strong, lost her reckoning, struck a rock near the village of Irima, in 
Yoshida Bay, ten miles from Cape Idzu, and sunk in twenty-one fathoms. Only 
four persons were saved. A marble monument was erected, and now commemo- 
rates the accident, which was robbed of many of its saddest features by the kind- 
ness and energy of the natives. 



406 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

to take the steerage, save the money, and have a feast, dance, and song 
with the gay and charming singing-girls of Ozaka. So to the steer- 
age they went, and solaced their transient misery with visions of the 
Ozaka paradise and the hlack-eyed houris. They suffered " an inch 
of hell " for a yard of heaven. 

I woke on the second morning in the harbor of Hiogo and Kobe 
(the Gate of God), the former the native city, the latter the foreign 
town. All around the land-locked water were bold walls of green 
hills. French, English, and American ships of war lay at anchor, and 
the clumsy junks, with their great, broad sails, plowed across the path 
of the dancing sunbeams. Native fishing and carriage boats were 
leaping over the waters, urged on by the stroke of the naked scullers. 
On shore, glorified by the mild winter's sun, rose the " model settle- 
ment," a fresh proof of Occidental energy on Oriental soil. Until 
1868, the site of the pretty town, laid out in chess-board regularity, 
was a mere strip of sand.* 

Under convoy of Iwabuchi and an American friend, to whom I 
bore letters, I spent a day and a half in Kobe and Hiogo. The latter 
city was erected in the days of Taira glory. Its name means " arse- 
nal," but peaceful trade now rules its streets. Near it stands Kiyo- 
mori's tomb. On the site of the Taira palace stands a great brothel. 
At Minato gawa, near Kobe, Kusunoki Masashige, the mirror of Jap- 
anese loyalty, welcomed death. A small temple stands as a historic 
monument of the act, dedicated to his spirit. 

In the cheerful home of an American missionary, to whom I bore 
letters, I spent a few delightful hours. They seemed to have brought 
the freshness and fragrance of New England hills, as well as the ener- 
gy and patience of their ancestors, with them. The time for active 
Christian labor had not yet come ; but the language was being mas- 
tered, and his morning hours were golden in the study. In the aft- 
ernoon, we together visited a famous temple, on the site of one first 
erected by Jingu Kogo, on her return from Corea. Crowds of pil- 
grims, in white robes, with wallet, staff, rosary, bell, and memorial shell 
lewed to their sleeve, were on the route or return. We spent the 
evening at the house of one of the merchant princes of Kobe, in 
whose establishment Oriental luxuriance and American taste, barbaric 
pomp and cozy comfort, were combined. 



* The figures of the official register of Kobe (May, 187-4) are: houses, 3846; 
population, 8554 ; foreign residents, 332 ; in the foreign "concession," 67 houses. 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 



407 



Our party were early on the steamboat, which carried the Stars and 
Stripes at her stern, and was commanded by a Yankee captain. It 
was crowded with natives, who rode for ichi bu (twenty-five cents). 
The five or six foreigners in the cabin paid each two " clean Mexi- 
cans." These silver eagles are the standard of value in Japan and 
China, though Uncle Sam's trade-dollars and Japanese gold yen are 
now contesting their supremacy. 

We steamed along the coast for three hours ; passed the forts built 
in 1855, and well mounted and manned; passed the light -house of 
Tempozan (Hill of Heavenly Peace), and at noon, February 25th, 1871, 
I stood in the city called, in poetry, Naniwa — in prose, Ozaka. 




Buddhist Pilgrims. 



All the large daimios formerly had yashikis in Yedo, Ozaka, and 
in Kioto, as well as in their own capitals, for the use of the clan. 
They served as caravansaries, at which the lord or his retainers might 
lodge, when on business or travel, and be treated according to their 
rank. But one or two samurai and their families occupied the Echi- 
zen yashiki in Ozaka, which could lodge a hundred or more men. A 
suite of rooms was soon swept and dusted out, rugs laid on the mat- 
ting, and dinner, in mixed Japanese and American style, was served. 

Ozaka is a gay city, with lively people, and plenty of means of 
amusement, especially theatres and singing - girls. The ladies are 





408 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

handsomer, dress in better taste, tie their girdles in a style nearer per- 
fection, and build coiffures that are at once the envy and despair of 
Tokio damsels. Ozaka has every sort of gay life. In all the large 

cities there are geisha, noted 
for their wit, beauty, skill in 
playing the three-stringed ban- 
jo. The daughters of Kioto 
and Tokio do excellently, but 
those of Ozaka excel them all. 
Ozaka is also the greatest 
commercial city in Japan. I 
was interested in the metal re- 
fineries and foundries, where 
The Sttmisen. ^he rosy copper ingots were 

cast, and brass cannon of elegant workmanship turned out. With 
Iwabuchi as guide, I rambled over the city, and stood on many a 
spot made classic by Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasu. Iwabuchi's 
fluent tongue and knowledge of history were as spectacles to me, en- 
abling me to see the past as he summoned it from resurrection. 

An officer from Fukui brought us word, February 27th, that we 
were to leave Ozaka that night, and that at Fushimi an honorary es- 
cort of seven mounted officers of the clan would meet me, they hav- 
ing come down from Fukui, one hundred and thirty miles, to escort 
me. We were to proceed up the Yodo, the river that drains six prov- 
inces, visit the temple of Hachiman or Ojin Tenno, dine in historic 
Fushimi, and thence proceed on horseback to Lake Biwa. The mor- 
row was to be a red-letter day. 

We left Ozaka at night, about ten o'clock. It was very cold, and 
bright moonlight, but the boat was a " house-boat," and the cabin with- 
in was neatly matted, and with rugs and hibachi we kept up a genial 
temperature until bed-time. We passed hundreds of boats like our 
own, and after making our way through the city, that might be a 
Venice if it were not wooden, passed the long rows of fire-proof store- 
houses, and gradually emerged into the country, where, except a scat- 
tered village here and there, we saw only the grand mountains and 
pines, and the silent landscape. The boat was provided with four 
rowers, though after we left the city, the river being shallow, they had 
to pole along, like Mississippi flat-boat w r alkers. Throughout the 
frosty night we slept, waking occasionally to listen to the ripples un- 
der the bow. The sendo plied their poles, and at day-break we were 



IX THE HEART OF JAPAN. 409 

far from Ozaka, with the. classic ground of Kawachi on our right, and 
Settsu on our left. 

The sun clothed the hills in light, revealing the landscape, and kin- 
dled the frost on our cabin-roof into resplendent prismatics. "We were 
in the clear water of the Yodo River, which flowed at a gentle current 
between banks of undergrowth, with groves of firs and bamboo, and 
here and there a group of thatched villages, through which the Jesuits 
and Franciscans preached Mary, St. Peter, and Christ, over two centu- 
ries ago. Along the shores stood white herons, tall storks, and, occa- 
sionally, huge hawks. 

While musing on the past, and imagining the Portuguese missiona- 
ries, crucifix in hand, preaching on that open space, or erecting a cross 
on that knoll, Nakamura came out and pointed out the villages of Ha- 
shimoto (foot of the bridge) and Yamazaki (mountain point), where, 
in 1868, the contest at Fushimi was continued. The Tokugawa army 
held Hashimoto, while the mikado's troops attacked them by land, and 
bombarded them from a redoubt in Yamazaki, until they fled, defeated 
and in disorder, to Ozaka, when the shogun notified the foreign min- 
isters that he could no longer protect them. I enjoyed Nakamura's 
talk richly, and, refreshed by the " sweet mother of fresh thoughts and 
health," body and mind were ready to drink in the sweet influences of 
that glorious morning in the heart of Japan. But what of the boat- 
men? 

After a hard night's toil, poling and walking in a nipping frost, I 
wished to see the breakfast by which they laid the physical basis for 
another day's work. At the stern of the boat, resting on a little fur- 
nace, was the universal rice-pot, and beside it a small covered wooden 
tub, full of rice. Some pickled or boiled slices of the huge radish 
called dai-kon lay in another receptacle. The drink was the cheapest 
tea. It may possibly be true, what some foreigners assert, that the 
lower classes in Japan feast on rats. " The daily ration of a Japanese 
laborer was one mouse per diem ;" so I was once told in America. I 
never saw or heard of such animals being eaten during all the time I 
was in Japan ; but I now looked for some stimulating food, some piece 
of flesh diet to be eaten by these men, who had to make muscle and 
repair the waste of lubricating their joints. But nothing further was 
forthcoming, and the sendo whose turn came first sat down to his 
breakfast. The first course was a bowlful of rice and a pair of chop- 
sticks. In the second course, history repeated itself. The third course 
was a dipperful of tea, apparently one-half a solution of tannic acid, 



410 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

in which a raw hide might have been safely left to tan. I wondeF 
whether the disease of ossification of the coats of the stomach, so com- 
mon in Japan, arises from the constant drinking such astringent liq- 
uor. The fourth course was a bowl of rice and two slices of radish ; 
the fifth was the same. A dipperful of tea-liquor finished the meal, 
and the pole was resumed. I noticed grist-mills on scows or rafts 
anchored in the river, the current turning the huge wheels slowly to 
grind or hull rice. They were quite similar to those I had noticed on 
the Rhine and other European rivers. 

At nine o'clock we came in front of the village Yawata, at which 
there was a guard-house, which we knew, at a distance, by its peculiar- 
ly shaped lantern and canvas hangings, like curtains, on which was the 
huge crest of the mikado — an open chrysanthemum flower. Our boat 
hove to, and Nakamura, the officer of the party, explained who we 
were, and what our business was, and we then landed in the village. 

While our boat, with the servants, was sent ahead to Fushimi, we 
four wended our way up the mountain Otoko yama to the part called 
Pigeon-peak, where stands the great Shinto temple, on a site first built 
upon in 860 a.d., and dedicated to Ojin Tenno, the son of Jingu Kogo, 
who conquered Corea by the divine spirit bestowed on her then un- 
born son. It was made further famous by the gift from Hideyoshi 
of a golden gutter, to collect the sacred droppings of the sanctuary. 
Ascending the last of many flights of stone steps, we stood upon a 
plateau. A long avenue arcade, with overarching pines, and lined with 
tall stone lanterns, led to the temple fagade. Two priests, robed in 
pure white, with high black lacquered caps on their heads, were bear- 
ing offerings of fish, fruit, and other food, to place upon the altar, each 
article being laid on a sheet of pure white paper, or ceremonial trays. 
In the perfectly clean and austerely simple nave of the temple stood 
an altar, having upon it only the gohei, or wands, with notched strips 
of white paper dependent. 

There were no idols, images, or pictures, only the gohei, the offer- 
ings, and the white-robed priests at prayer. The impressive simplici- 
ty, the sequestered site on a lofty mountain surrounded with tall trees 
of majestic growth and of immemorial antiquity, the beauty, the si 
lence, all combined to instill reverence and holy awe alike in the alien 
spectator as in the native worshiper. The head of the foreigner un- 
covered, and his feet were unshod simultaneously with the unsandal- 
ing of the feet, the bowing of the head, and the reverent meeting of 
the palms of his companions. 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 411 

On the porch the priests, having finished their prayer, came out, 
and politely greeted the American, informing him, through Iwabuchi, 
that he was the first foreigner who had ever visited the temple. They 
then showed him the fine carving and ornaments of the eaves and out- 
er walls, and the portion which remained of the large golden gutter, 
made of beaten gold, over a foot in diameter. Only a few feet of the 
once extensive gift have survived the ravages of war and the necessi- 
ties of rulers, who, in Japan or elsewhere, replenish their depleted ex 
chequers or treasuries from the riches of the temples. 

The records of this temple declare that it was erected at the sugges- 
tion of the priest Gio Kio, who wished to dedicate a temple to Ojin 
Tenno in Bungo ; that it was the desire of the spirit of the god to 
dwell near the capital, so as to watch over the imperial house. Hence 
it was located here. The Buddhists had already canonized him as 
Hachiman Dai Bosatsii, or the Incarnation of Buddha of the Eight 
Banners. Hence, among the devotees of the India faith, this god of 
war, and patron of warriors, is called Hachiman, and by those of the 
native cult Ojin Tenno. Hachi-man (hachi, eight; man, banners) is 
the Chinese form of Yawata (ya, eight ; wata, banners). 

We descended the northern side of the mountain toward Fushimi, 
and passed through Yodo, an old castle town, to which the defeated 
Tokugawa army retreated after their rout at Fushimi. Nakamura, 
who was familiar with every foot of ground, having had a hand in 
many a fight in and around Kioto during the civil war, pointed out 
the site of the battle that opened the war of the Restoration. For- 
getting the fact that our dinner hour had come, we went to examine 
this cock-pit of 1868. There, on the west bank, the Aidzu and Ku- 
wana clans, that formed the van of Tokugawa's army, landed on the 
27th of January, 1868, and, attempting to pass the barriers at Toba, 
received into their bosoms the canister from the Satsuma cannon. 
The Tokugawa troops marched along a narrow path in the rice-fields 
only a few feet wide, like a causeway, through a lake of paddy-field 
ooze. To move from the path was to sink knee-deep in a glutinous 
quagmire. To advance was to climb over the writhing, wounded, and 
slippery dead men, only to face cannon aimed point-blank, while the 
musketry of the sheltered Southerners enfiladed their long, snake-like 
lines. Numbers only increased the sureness of the immense target at 
which Remington riflemen were practicing in coolness and earnest. 
" That field," at which the long and bony finger of our cicerone point- 
ed, " was piled with dead men like bundles of fire-wood." 



s 



412 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

On the first advance, the Tokugawa men broke and ran; but, on 
the second, the fighting began on both the two roads, the Fushimi 
and the Toba, which lead to Kioto. " Here," said he, " is where the 
rebels [Tokugawa army] were surprised while eating, at early morning. 
In that bamboo grove, our men [kuan gun, mikado's army] made an 
ambuscade, and tore up the rebel ranks dreadfully." Then the village 
of Toba caught fire, and the rebels fled to Yodo, finding, to their 
chagrin, that the castle was barred against them. Fushimi was also 
burned during the fight. " There," said our guide, as we neared the 
town, " is where the fire began." 

We walked up the historic streets in which the tramp of armies 
had so often resounded, through which Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Iyeyasu, 
and Xavier, had passed, in which the Jesuits had stood preaching to 
listening crowds of people like those before me. The town itself dis- 
appointed me. The feeling was the same as that experienced in 
Washington in 1865. I went thither to behold the demi-gods who, 
through a hundred battles, had borne the old flag to victory. I saw 
Grant's and Sherman's legions of one hundred and forty thousand 
men march up Pennsylvania Avenue. There was no halo round their 
heads. They were not giants. They were plain men in blue blouses. 
Fushimi, with all its history, was a poverty-stricken Japanese town. 

Further recollections of Fushimi are mainly of vulgar and gastro- 
nomic interest. I remember that a certain man had climbed up a 
mountain, and then tramped down again at an appetite - sharpening 
pace, and that his special objects of interest and desire at that time 
were something to eat. Subordinate to these were a bath and a lounge. 
The hungry man had shed his tight-fitting skin of boots, coat, and 
hat, and was tranquil in looser robes over the soothing warmth of a 
cone of live coals in a bronze hibachi. The dissolving views of his 
reveries, compounded of what he had seen and yearnings of what he 
expected, were suddenly broken by the advent of a steaming and fra- 
grant tray of food cooked by one of the best culinary artists in Japan, 
a native who had learned the art at the club in Yokohama. It is, of 
course, too well known to Englishmen and others that the American 
at his meals is an animal not to be lightly disturbed. After the feed 
is over, he is placable, and ready for business. 

I was scarcely through my dish of lily -bulbs, and had not yet 
touched my rice and curry, and California canned-meats, when Iwabu- 
chi, my interpreter, announced the arrival of five samurai from Fukui, 
who had traveled one hundred and thirty miles to meet the American, 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 413 

and wished to see him immediately, to pay their respects, and announce 
themselves as my escort to Fukui. They would be in the room in a 
moment. 

" Can they not wait a few minutes till I finish my dinner ?" I asked. 

" I am afraid not," replied he ; " they are very eager to see you im- 
mediately. Such are their orders from their superior at Fukui." 

" Well, but I am in deshabille. I can't be seen in this style." 

" Oh ! indeed, they won't care for that. Besides, here they are at 
the door. They merely sent me to announce them." 

It was too late to stop the invasion, so the animal must forego his 
provender for a time. The paper sliding-doors were pulled aside, and 
five stalwart men entered and stood in line, eyes front, facing me. I 
mentally waited to see how the ceremonies would proceed. In the 
twinkling of an eye they all sunk on their knees, spread their hands 
prone before them, and bowed their heads for full fifteen seconds on 
the floor. Then, resilient, all sat in a row on their heels, and spread 
out their robes, with hands in their hakama. The leader then handed 
Iwabuchi an imposing paper to read, which set forth that they had 
been sent by the daimio from Fukui, to bear the congratulations of 
the authorities, and to escort the American teacher to Fukui. This 
solemnly done, they bowed profoundly again and departed. It was 
all over within two minutes. The meal was finished in peace and 
abundance, and then began the preparations for the ride to Otsu, 
eight miles distant. The baggage and servants were dispatched by 
boat, and at half -past four all were mounted, and we started. Our 
cavalcade consisted of nine horses and riders. 

The air was damp, and the sky was leaden, when we started. The 
whole household were at the gate of the court-yard, to bow low and 
cry " sayonara" and the whole village was assembled, and stood agape 
to see the foreigner. 

Out past the shanties of the village, our path lay over a wooded 
mountain, and then the snow fell, turning to slush as it touched coat, 
horse, or earth. In an hour we were all white with cloggy masses of 
snow, and in places wet to the skin with the cold soaking of sleet. 
Twilight succeeded the day, and darkness the twilight, until only the 
gigantic forms of the firs bearded with snow, and so silent, were out- 
lined through the slow shower of flakes. Far up into vague infinity 
loomed the mountains, occasionally a beetling rock thrusting out its 
mighty mass in a form of visible darkness. After five hours of such 
riding it grew uncomfortable. Every flake, as it fell, seemed to have 

27 



414 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

weight. To cold, wet, chattering travelers, what comforts could a 
Japanese inn afford ? 

The same difference exists in Japan as in highly civilized countries 
in regard to hotels and their keepers, as concerning unexpected or an- 
nounced guests. To come suddenly to a Japanese inn in winter is to 
shiver, as in a refrigerator, and wait cheerlessly for an intolerably long 
time, and understand all about Greenland, before the fire and food are 
brought, the thaw sets in, and comfort is attained. At Otsu (now 
called Shiga), however, a blazing fire was ready as our party rode into 
the court-yard. Boots and coat off, I was led into the best room, on 
which a pile of silken quilts was spread for my bed, and in the mid- 
dle of the room was that sum of delights, a kotatsu. Poor, civilized 
reader, or Western barbarian, you do not know what a kotatsu is? 
No? Let me tell you. In the very centre of the room lift up that 
square foot of matting, and you will find a stone-lined bowl, a few 
inches deep. In this the fat and red-cheeked chamber-maid puts a 
shovelful of live coals. Over it she sets a wooden frame, a foot high, 
called a yagura, after the castle-tower which it imitates. Over this 
she spreads a huge quilt. It is an extemporary oven, in which you 
can bake yourself by drawing the quilt about you, and find a little 
heaven of heat, exchanging shivers for glow. A kotatsu may be safe- 
ly warranted to change a grumbler, who believes Japan to be a wretch- 
ed hole of a barbarian country, into a rhapsodist who is ready to swear 
that the same country is a paradise, within ten minutes. 

The next morning we were to take steamer, and cross Lake Biwa 
to Hanoura, at the north end of the lake. Kioto lay but seven miles 
distant from us, and I could easily have visited the sacred city ; but I 
was eager to get to my work. Besides, I wished to study it when I 
could best appreciate it, and see it with a knowledge of Japanese his- 
tory for my spectacles. So I postponed the trip till three years later. 
I glance round Otsu in a short walk. Its name means Great Harbor. 
I saw some of the very places mentioned by Kaempfer and the Jes- 
uits. 

Our hotel was near the steamer's dock. At 9 a.m., our party, 
twelve in all, were on board, and a lighter, full of our baggage, was 
in tow. The little steamer screeched once or twice, ending in a pro- 
longed squeal, and we were fairly out on the bosom of Japan's largest 
lake. It was a strange sight, here in Inland Japan, to see a steamboat 
pulsing over the water, and stretching its long scarfs of smoke in the 
pure air against the white snow and the azure of the mountains. The 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 415 

Golden Age, always alloyed with poverty and ignorance and discom- 
forts, was past for Japan ; the Iron Age of smoke, of coal, of comfort, 
of wealth, was coming. 

The Lilliputian steamer, compared with one of our Hudson River 
ferry-boats, was as a Japanese tea-cup to a soda-water tumbler, or a 
thimble to a gill. It was only — I am afraid to say how many feet 
short, and inches narrow. Its engines, like its entire self, were oscil- 
lating. Captain, engineer, fireman, and crew were all Japanese. The 
accommodations of the passengers were strictly graded. The cabin, 
in the stern, was ten feet by six, and four feet high. At one end, a 
platform, six inches high, three feet wide, six feet long, and covered 
with a rug, was the "first-class." At the side was a set of sword- 
racks. The floor of the rest of the same cabin, six inches lower, was 
" second-class." The promenade-deck was ten feet by six, two square 
feet being occupied by the refreshment-vender of the boat, who fur- 
nished tea, boiled rice, rice cracknels, pickles, rice rolls wrapped in sea- 
weed, boiled cuttle-fish, etc., to those who wished refreshment. He 
seemed to drive a brisk trade ; for, besides our party of eight, who oc- 
cupied the cabin and deck, our servants and about a dozen other na- 
tives filled a hole in the bow, which was " third-class." 

I preferred first-class air. I kept on deck, watching the snow-clad 
mountains, and the historic towns, castles, and villages, and now and 
then a boat under sail or oar. Biwa ko, as the natives call it, is as 
green and almost as beautiful as a Swiss lake. It is named after the 
musical instrument called a biwa, because shaped like it. Tradition 
says that in one night Fuji san rose out of the earth in Suruga, and 
in one night the earth sunk in Omi, and this lake, sixty miles long, 
was formed. The monotony of the voyage was broken at four 
o'clock in the afternoon, when the little boat swung to its moorings 
at the village of Hanoiira. The place reminded me of Kussnacht, at 
the end of Lake Lucerne. We stepped out into what seemed a vil- 
lage of surpassing poverty. The houses were more than ordinarily 
dilapidated. The streets were masses of slush and mud. The people 
seemed, all of them, dirty, poor, ragged. I had full opportunities of 
becoming acquainted with all of them, for every one quickly informed 
his neighbors that a foreigner was among them, and soon the color of 
his eyes and hair, his clothes and actions, were discussed, and himself 
made the nine days' wonder of the village. 

I began to realize the utter poverty and wretchedness of the people 
and the country of Japan. It was not an Oriental paradise, such as a 



416 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



reader of some books about it may have supposed. I had only a faint 
conception of it then. I saw it afterward, until the sight oppressed 
me like nightmare. At present, novelty lent its chromatic lenses, and 
tinged all my view. Then, too, I thought that the wretched weather 
and leaden sky had something to do with my feelings ; and when the 
servant-maids brought water and waited on my companions, as they 
took off their wet boots, sandals, and socks, with such hearty cheer, 
merry smiles, and graceful skill, every thing looked as if sunshine had 
sifted through a cloud-rift. 

I was quite restored to myself again by a sight that banished all 
disgust. A jolly-looking, fat girl was half hobbling, half staggering 

along on her clogs, her generous 
physique quivering like heaps of 
jelly. Her left hand grasped the 
cross-handle of a bucket of water, 
which was in a state of general 
splash, like herself. Her right 
arm, bared by her bag-like sleeves 
being bound to her armpits, was 
extended far over toward the 
ground to countervail gravity on 
the other side. I momentarily 
expected this buxom Gill to stum- 
ble and tumble ; but not she. She 
knew her business too well. Her 
tout ensemble, her face reddened 
by exercise, her vigorous puffing, 
her belt flying in the wind, like 
Mr. Gough's coat-tails, were too 
funny to resist. My risibilities 
exploded ; whereat hers did like- 
wise. I cheerfully sat down, and let her wash my cold feet in warm 
water, which being over, I got up, entered the best room in the house, 
and curled up under a kotatsii. 

We started off the next morning at eight o'clock. We were to 
walk eighteen miles before the end of our day's journey to Tsuruga, a 
sea-port town. Our party prepared for the journey over mountain- 
paths by taking off their riding sandals or heavy wooden clogs, and 
girding on the feet a pair of straw sandals, which they bought for 
eighty-five " cash" (less than one cent) per pair. For myself, a fine, large, 




Bringing Water to wash Travelers' Feet. 
(Hokusai.) 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 



417 



and very handsome norimono, borne on the shoulders of two men, was 
provided. It was a fine, large box, like a palanquin, except that the 
pole by which it rested on the two men's shoulders passed through 
the top instead of being fastened at the centre, as in India. The one 
I rode in was gold-lacquered without, and richly upholstered and pa- 
pered within, with neat curtains of bamboo split into fine threads. 
Once inside, there was room to sit down. If one does not mind be- 
ing a little cramped, he can spend a day comfortably inside. For 
high lords and nobles four men are provided, and the long supporting 
bar is slightly curved to denote high rank. I entered the norimono 
in the presence of the entire village, including the small boys. The 




A Norimono. 

ride of a few hundred yards sufficed for me. The sights were too 
novel to miss seeing any thing, and so I got out and walked. I was 
not sorry for the change. The air was bracing, the scenery inspiring. 

A double pleasure rewards the pioneer who is the first to penetrate 
into the midst of a new people. Besides the rare exhilaration felt in 
treading soil virgin to alien feet, it acts like mental oxygen to look 
upon and breathe in a unique civilization like that of Japan. To feel 
that for ages millions of one's own race have lived and loved, enjoyed 
and suffered and died, living the fullness of life, yet without the relig- 
ion, laws, customs, food, dress, and culture which seem to us to be the 
vitals of our social existence, is like walking through a living Pompeii. 

Our path wound up from the village to a considerable height. On 
both sides of the mountain path and pass the ground was terraced 



418 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

into rice -fields, which were irrigated by the stream that is usually 
found flowing between two hills. During the day we went through 
valleys of ravishing beauty. In them the ground was divided into ir- 
rigated rice-fields, which were now bare, and dotted with the clumps 
of rice-stubble as it was left when cut by the reaper's hook. At in- 
tervals were small villages, surrounded by the universal and ever-beau- 
tiful bamboo. On both sides of the valley, bold hills, thickly clothed 
with pine and fir and solemn evergreen, rose to the clouds. And 
all along, with a frequency like that of mile-stones, stood the kosatsii 
(edict -boards), on which hung the slander and prohibition against 
Christianity. We were still in the province of Omi. 

Frequently along the road I observed large, square posts of new 
wood, plentifully ornamented with Chinese characters, which marked 
the boundaries of the province, subdivision, or district. At noon we 
crossed the frontier of Omi and entered the province of Echizen, and 
at two o'clock that division of it which was under the jurisdiction of 
the Fukui Han. Being now within the dominions of " our prince," 
we expected evidences of it, in which we were not disappointed. At 
every village the nanushi, or head-men, arrayed in their best dress, 
came out to meet us, presenting their welcomes and congratulations. 
Sometimes they would salute us half a mile or more from the village, 
and after welcoming us, bowing literally to the earth, they would has- 
ten on before and conduct us through the village to the extreme limit, 
and there take their adieu, with bows, kneelings, and sayonara. To- 
ward evening, having lunched and rested two hours at noon, we arrived 
near Tsuruga, and were met by the officers of the city, and conducted 
to the best hotel in the place. 

My eight companions were unusually merry that night, and, to add 
to their enjoyment, Melpomene, Terpsichore, and Hebe, or, in other 
words, two geishas, were present to dispense music, dancing, and sake. 
Several of the samurai danced what might be called stag-dances, from 
their novelty and vigor. I occupied myself in making notes of the 
day's trip. Iwabuchi had pointed out many places of historic inter- 
est, the lore of which I was not then, but was afterward, fully able to 
appreciate. I found in the room I occupied a work in Japanese, treat- 
ing of the Opium War in China, with vivid illustrations of the foreign 
steamers, artillery, and tactics. It was well thumbed and dog-eared, 
having evidently been read and reread many times. It had been pub- 
lished in Japan shortly after the war in China, and prepared the Japa- 
nese mind for what they had to expect. 



IN TEE EEART OF JAPAN. 419 

Tsuruga expects to become a great city some day.* It is to be the 
terminus of a railroad from Ozaka and Kioto. A canal is to connect 
its barbor with Lake Biwa — a scheme first proposed by Taira Shige- 
mori, son of Kiyomori, in the twelfth century. It is to become the 
largest and wealthiest port on the west coast. I think there is good 
ground for these hopes. Its geographical position is every thing to be 
desired, and its harbor the best on the west coast.f 

We made an early start. We were to reach Takefu, a town about 
seventeen miles distant. We first walked down to the sea-shore, where 
I caught a splendid view of Tsuruga harbor, two-thirds of a circle of 
blue sea within rocky and timbered headlands. On the sandy strand 
were a dozen or more junks beached for the winter, propped and cov- 
ered with straw mats. In one or two tall sheds made of poles and 
mats were the keels and frames of new junks, with new timber and 
copper lying near, and one nearly finished. They were all on the an- 
cient model. Emerging into the road to Fukui, we came to the stone 
portal of a large Shinto temple.]; Within a grove of grand old giant 
firs stood the simple shrine, without image, idol, or picture, save only 
the strips of white paper and the polished mirrors. My guards stop- 
ped, clapped their hands three times, placed them reverently together, 
bowed their heads, and uttered a prayer. The act was as touching as 
it was simple. 

About seven-eighths of Echizen is mountain-land, and to-day was 

* Tsuruga was made the capital of Tsuruga ken, including the province of 
Echizen, in 1873; thus becoming an official seat, leaving Fukui in the back- 
ground. 

t A Japanese gazetteer or cyclopedia, in describing a city, is especially minute 
in regard to the history and traditions. It describes fully the temples, shrines, 
customs, and local peculiarities, and usually winds up by recounting the "fa- 
mous scenes " or " natural beauties " of the place, whether it be Kioto or Fukui. 
Thus the " Echizen Gazetteer " says : " The ten fine scenes ('sceneries,' as the be- 
ginners in English put it) of Tsuruga are — 1st, the red plum-trees in the temple 
grounds of Kei ; 2d, the full moon at Amatsutsu ; 3d, the white sails of the return- 
ing junks seen from Kiomidzu ; 4th, the evening bells at Kanegasaki ; 5th, the tea- 
houses at Iro ; 6th, the dragon's light (phosphorescence) on the sea-shore; 7th, 
the verdure at Kushikawa ; 8th, the evening snow on Nosaka ; 9th, the travelers 
on Michinokuchi ; 10th, the evening glow at Yasudama." 

X The gods worshiped at these shrines are— Jingu Kogo, mother of Ojin Ten- 
no ; Ukemochi, the goddess of cereals and food ; Tamato Dake, conqueror of the 
Kuanto; Ojin Tenno, or Hachiman, god of war; Takenouchi, prime minister of 
Jingu ; and Tamahime, sister of the latter. The large granite tori-i was erected 
by Hideyasu, first of the Tokugawa daimios of Echizen. Near the city are the 
ruins of old fortifications of Nitta Toshisada, and Asakura Yoshikagi, the foe of 
Nobunaga. 



420 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

one of climbing. The snow lay eight and ten feet deep on each side 
the hard line of path. The path itself was only such as is made by 
the tramping of human feet and by horses. We were now in full 
force — foreigner, interpreter, guards, servants, and porters, about forty 
of whom carried our baggage. We were strung out over the white 
landscape in Indian file, numbering fifty -four persons in all. One 
coolie, the pioneer, had a can of kerosene on his back ; another, my 
wraps and hand-baggage; another had his head under the seat of a 
rocking-chair, the space between the rockers being well packed. Oth- 
ers bore miscellaneous packages. When a box was too heavy for one 
man, it was slung on a pole and carried by two. The valleys were ev- 
idently, judging from their tracks, well stocked with rabbits and foxes, 
and in the rice-fields flocks of fat wild geese and ducks offered tempt- 
ing marks, on which one of the samurai, who had a revolver, spent 
much vain powder. The white heron were plentiful, and occasionally 
we saw the huge storks, six feet high, stalking along the streams. On 
the hills where the path wound through the woods the snow had been 
disturbed by the wild boar. We stopped to rest at the house of a 
noted hunter, on whose floor lay three huge carcasses and tusked heads. 
He showed us his long, light spear, with which he had transfixed one 
hundred and thirteen wild hogs that winter. It had a triangular, 
bayonet -like blade. The village bought the meat of him, and what 
he had left over he sent to Tsuruga and Fukui. Monkeys were also 
plentiful in the woods. 

In all the villages the people were on the lookout for the coming 
foreigner. The entire population, from wrinkled old men and stout 
young clowns, to hobbling hags, girls with red cheeks and laughing 
black eyes, and toddling children, were out. The women, babies, and 
dogs seemed especially eager to get a sight of the to-jin, and see what 
sort of an animal he was. The village houses were built of a frame of 
wood, with wattles of bamboo smeared with mud, and having a thatch- 
ed roof. Within, the floor was raised a foot or so above the ground, 
and covered with mats. When the rooms had partitions, they were 
made of a frame of wood covered with paper, and made to slide in 
grooves. In the middle of the floor was the fire - place. From the 
ceiling hung pot-hooks, pots, and kettles — one for tea, one for rice, 
another for radishes, beans, or bean -cheese. In these villages good- 
nature and poverty seemed to be the chief characteristics of the peo- 
ple. The old faces were smoke-dried and wrinkled, and the skin 
seemed to be tanned on the inside by long swilling of strong tea. 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 



421 




Amidst this monotony of ug- 
liness, I was glad to see the 
merry, twinkling black eyes, 
and red cheeks of pretty girls, 
and the sweet faces of chil- 
dren, rosy and chubby, spite 
of dirt and slush, as they 
paused in their work of mak- 
ing snow-men, to gaze upon 
the stranger. Most of the 
people, in addition to the 
usual Japanese dress, wore 
long, high boots of plaited 
straw, admirable for walking 
in the snow, called " Echizen 
boots," the worth of which I 
proved. 

Our route for the next day 
lay through a lovely valley 
formed by a river. The rate 
of traveling had not been se- Villa g e in Echizen - 

vere. The record of each day was very much like a page of the "Anab- 
asis," and from two to four of Xenophon's parasangs were our daily 
journey. Long before I arrived at my place of destination, I found the 
way the Japanese have of doing things was not that of America, and that 
life in Japan would be a vastly different thing from the split-second life 
in New York. It took us three days and a half to do what I afterward 
accomplished easily, by the same means, in a day and a quarter. That 
large bodies move slowly is true, to an exasperating extent, in Japan. 
A journey of ten Japanese samurai means unlimited sleep, smoking of 
pipes, drinking of tea, and drowsy lounging. A little more tea, one 
more smoke, and the folding of the legs to sit, is the cry of the Japa- 
nese yakunin. Such things at first were torture, and a threat of in- 
sanity to me, when I found that time had no value, and was infinitely 
cheaper than dirt in Japan. Finally, I became, under protest, used to 
it. On this occasion I rather enjoyed it. My eyes were not full of 
seeing yet, and, though impatient to reach my field of labor, yet this 
was the grand manner of traveling, and best for heart and eye and 
memory. Besides, it would be undignified to make haste in the 
prince's own dominions, and the porters, under their heavy loads, 



422 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

must not be hurried. It also gave me opportunity to learn from my 
interpreter every thing of historic, local, and legendary interest, and 
thus fit myself to appreciate what I afterward had read to me from 
the " Gazetteer of Echizen." 

Twelve miles from Fukui, I found an officer of the daimio, who had 
been sent to meet and welcome me. After being introduced, he of- 
fered me presents of a duck, and a box, handsomely wrapped in white 
paper, and tied in cord of red and white, and filled with gorgeous- 
ly colored red, green, and yellow sweetmeats. We were to rest at 
Takefu for the night, and next morning take horses and ride to Fu- 
kui. Meanwhile there was to be a grand dinner. Iwabuchi and I 
sallied out to see the town. 

It was a poor place. It had formerly been of more importance, 
and named Fuchiu,* but had declined. It numbered probably twelve 
thousand people, having thirty -four streets, and two thousand eight 
hundred and forty-nine houses, and, being a post-relay town, twenty- 
five houses were kept for hire to travelers. The streets were broad, 
and a stream of water flowed between stone banks in the middle of 
the street. There were many iron -workers; and broad knives, hoes, 
scissors, the rude plow-coulters, and the most useful articles of Japa- 
nese domestic cutlery were special productions. One of Nobunaga's 
most famous arrow-makers came from Takefu. Macaroni and vermi- 
celli, hemp and hempen cloth, were also staples. The Government 
edicts were posted up conspicuously on a stone platform, with impos- 
ing roofed frame of substantial timber. Two or three temples, with, 
spacious grounds and lofty trees, the stone path flanked by two im- 
mense stone or bronze lanterns, were among the adornments of the 
place. 

Familiarity, like a leaven, was breeding contempt, as I began to see 
what actual Japanese life was. I thanked God I was not of the race 
and soil. Was it Pharisaical ? 

We returned to the hotel — not very inviting without, but attractive 
within. In two fine large rooms brilliant screens of gold and silver 
spangled paper, or depicted with battle-scenes, such as the destruction 
of the Mongol fleet in 1281, and the capture of Kamakura by Nitta 

* Fuchiu, was formerly the general name of the capital of a province. The 
word means "interior of the government." After the Restoration, in 1868, the 
mikado's government changed the names of the many towns all over the empire, 
named Fuchiu, among which were those in Echizen and Suruga, the latter being 
called Shidzuoka (peaceful hill). 



IN THE HEART OF JAPAN. 423 

in 1333, and of Kioto court life, were ranged along the wall, and bra- 
ziers of figured bronze shed a genial glow through the mellow-lighted 
room. The) 7 had placed a new-made table for the foreigner to eat by 
himself. The officers, now twelve in number, and the chief men of 
the town sat round the floor in an oval. Four girls, all of them good- 
looking, brought in, not the dishes, but each time a tableful of dishes, 
and set one before each guest. Forthwith the meal began. 

On fourteen little tables, each a foot square, four inches high, made 
of wood lacquered black, and lustrous as jet, were as many pairs of 
chopsticks made of new, clean wood, ready bifurcated but unsplit, to 
show they had not been used. The maids attended, with full tubs of 
steaming rice and pots of tea, to replenish the rapidly emptied bowls. 
Fish, boiled eggs, lobster, and various made-dishes were served on enor- 
mous porcelain plates the size of the full moon. The nimble tapering 
fingers of the laughing girls handed out their contents. Then came 
the warm sake. The tiny cups circulated around, the girls acting as 
Hebes. Smoking and story-telling followed after the candles were 
brought in. In the evening, after each had enjoyed his hot bath, the 
quilts were spread, and the top-knotted heads were laid on their wood- 
en pillows and paper pillow-cases, and sleep, dreams, and snores had at- 
tained their maximum of perfection before nine o'clock. In my dream, 
I was at home in America, but failed to catch the train to get back to 
Japan. 

Twelve horses, saddled and bridled, were ready next morning, which 
was the 4th of March. After the last pipe had been smoked, the last 
cup of tea drank, and the last joke cracked, with swords thrust in gir- 
dle, wooden helmet tied on head under the chin, and straw sandals in 
stirrup, the cavalcade moved. We started off slowly through the town 
and crowded streets, and out into the valley toward Fukui. It was a 
day of wind, light showers, and fitful flakes of snow, alternating with 
rifts of sunlight that lent unearthly grandeur to the wrinkled hills. A 
brisk ride of two hours brought us within sight of Fukui. We were 
in a level plain between two walls of mountains. Just as Nakamura 
cried out, " Yonder is Fukui," a burst of sunshine threw floods of 
golden glory over the city. 

I shall never forget my emotions, in that sudden first glimpse of the 
city embowered in trees, looming across the plain, amidst the air laden 
with snow-flakes, and seen in the light reflected from storm-clouds. 
There were no spires, golden- vaned ; no massive pediments, f acades, or 
grand buildings such as strike the eye on beholding a city in the West- 



424 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

era world. I had formed some conception of Fukui while in Ameri- 
ca : something vaguely grand, mistily imposing — I knew not what. I 
now saw simply a dark, vast array of low-roofed houses, colossal tem- 
ples, gables, castle-towers, tufts of bamboo, and groves of trees. This 
was Fukui. 

As usual, officers came out at the city limits to meet us. We rode 
through the streets, thronged with eagerly curious people. The thor- 
oughfares were those of an ordinary Japanese town, not of my ideal 
Fukui. In a few minutes we crossed a bridge over a river, suddenly 
stopped, entered the gate of a handsome court-yard lined with trees, 
and before the door of a fine large old house dismounted and entered. 
I was welcomed by several officers, all in their best silks, swords, san- 
dals, and top-knots, with bows, and such awkward but hearty hand- 
shakings as men unused to it might be supposed to achieve. 

I then entered my future abode. It was a Japanese house, foreign- 
ized by American comforts. All the partitions and windows were of 
glass. A Peekskill stove, with pipe and fire, was up, and glowing a 
welcome. I found a handsome bedstead, wash-stand, and good furni- 
ture. How did all this come here? I soon understood it, for one 
merry-eyed officer told me, in broken English, " I been in New York. 
I understand. You like ?" I immediately seized the speaker's hand, 
and made him my friend. Sasaki (well named Tree of Help) was aft- 
erward my right-hand man. Then followed the dinner. This feature 
of foreign civilization was specially attractive to the Japanese. To 
sit at a huge table on chairs, with plates, knives, forks, casters, and 
epergne ; to experience the pomp and circumstance of soup, fish, vege- 
tables, flesh, and fowl, with the glittering gastronomic tools ; to tickle 
the palate and gorge the stomach with meat and wine and luscious 
sweets, seemed to them a sure proof of the superiority of foreign civil- 
ization. Eight of us sat down to a foreign dinner of manifold courses 
of fluid and solid fare, my own cook having arrived in Fukui the day 
before. The officers left me, and I spent the day in unpacking trunks, 
and adorning my room so as to give an American home-look to my 
quarters. 

In the evening I had a call from an officer who came to pay his re- 
spects to the foreign instructor. I invited him to stay to supper. 
He did so. Fortunately he understood a little English, having spent 
some time in Yokohama. He gave me much useful information. He 
invited me to make his home a place of daily resort. He offered to 
assist me in the choice of a good servant, a good horse, the best flow- 



W THE HEART OF JAPAN. 



425 



ers, pictures, curiosities, aud whatever I might wish to buy. He also 
taught me the value, symbols, and denominations of the local paper 
money of Fukui. I was already familiar with the national kinsatsu 

(money cards). A fac-simile of a nishiu 
piece, worth about twelve cents, is given 
in the cut. The ten and one rio (dollar), 
and bu (quarter) pieces are much larger. 
The dragons with horns, hair, scales, claws, 
and mustaches, jewel and mikado crests, 
are very conspicuous. The Chinese char- 
acters read " Money, nishiu," and " Mim 
Bu Sho, Currency Office." 

For centuries past, every great daimio 
has issued paper money current only in 
his han. There are over one hundred 
local varieties in the empire, of varied col- 
ors, values, and sizes. The Fukui denom- 
inations were one -tenth, one -fifth, one- 
half : one, three, five, ten, and fifty cents. 
The designs on them are the God of 
Wealth, the treasure-ship which every Jap- 
anese hopes to have " come in," the pile 
of kobans (oval gold coins) which he ex- 
pects to " raise," bags of rice — the stand- 
Fac-simiie of Kinsatsu. issue of a rd of value — dragons, flowers, birds, and 

the zoology of the zodiac. 
The officer further said I must have relaxation. He offered to 
show me the fairest and brightest maiden, whom I might bring to my 
house, and make my playmate. I thanked him, and accepted all his 
offers but the last. 

The night was clear and cold. The same familiar stars glittered 
overhead as those seen in the home sky. The wild geese sailed in the 
bright air, the moon bathing their plumage in silver. The temple-beli 
boomed solemnly as I lay down to rest. 




426 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



VIII. 

RECEPTION BY THE DAIMIO.—MY STUDENTS. 

The next day was a Sabbath in a Sabbathless land. I awoke to 
•find a perfect day — a heaven of cloudless blue, and every thing quiet 
and still. How should I spend Sunday here ? There were no church- 
bells pealing, no church, no pews, no pulpit, no street -cars, no pave- 
ment, no Sunday-school, no familiar friends. I walked to the gate 
of the court-yard and looked out upon the street. Business and traf- 
fic were going on as usual. The samurai on clogs, in his silk and 
crested coat, swords in girdle and cue on clean -shorn crown, was 
walking on, in his dignity, as the lord of society. The priest, in his 
flowing crape and brocade collar, with shaven head, and rosary on 




On the Tow-path. (Hokusai.) 

wrist, was on his way to the temple. The merchant, in his plain, 
wadded cotton clothes, tight breeches, and white - thonged sandals of 
straw, was thinking of his bargains. The laborer, half naked and 
half covered in the fabrics of Eden, in sandals of rice-straw, tunic, and 
hat, making himself a fulcrum for his scale-like method of carrying 
heavy burdens, passed staggering by. A file of his brethren, with 
hats in the shape of inverted wash-bowls, engaged on some heavy work 
at the river-side, were resting on a log, looking, in the distance, like a 
row of exaggerated toad-stools. The seller of fish, vegetables, oil, and 



RECEPTION BY THE DAIMlO.—MY STUDENTS. 427 

bean-cheese, each uttering his trade-cry, ambled on. On the opposite 
shore, with ropes over their shoulders, a gang of straw-clad men — not 
mules — were towing a boat up stream, against the current. 

I returned indoors. Breakfast over, I sought the companionship of 
my dear, silent friends, which I had brought with me, and which had 
not yet been arranged, though I had already made my plans for a 
book-case. It was about half-past nine, when the gate at the end of 
the court-yard opened, and in rode Nakamura, my guard of yesterday. 
Behind him came three of the daimio's grooms, one of them leading 
a gorgeously caparisoned horse. The grooms were dressed in only one 
garment, a loose blue coat coming to a little below the hips, with 
socks on his feet, and the usual white loin-cloth around his waist. 
On the back of his coat was the crest of his prince. The horse was 
the most richly dressed. It was decked as if for a tournament or 
ball. Its tail was incased in a long bag of figured blue silk, which 
was tied at the root with red silk cord and tassels. The hair of the 
mane and top-knot was collected into a dozen or more tufts bound 
round with white silk, and resembling so many brushes or pompons. 
The saddle was an elaborate piece of furniture, lacquered and gilded 
with the crests of Tokugawa. The saddle-cloths and flaps were of 
corrugated leather, stamped in gold. The stirrups were as large as 
shovels, and the rider, removing his sandals when he mounted, rested 
the entire soles of his feet in them. The material was bronze, orna- 
mented with a mosaic of silver and gold. The bridle was a scarf of 
silk, and the bit and halter different from any I had seen elsewhere. 
From the saddle, crupper, and halter depended silken cords and tassels. 
Altogether, it reminded me of one of the steeds on the Field of the 
Cloth of Gold. The horse had been sent to convey me to meet the 
prince and his chief officers, who were to receive me in the main room 
of the Han Cho, or Government Office. Nakamura was to escort me, 
and Iwabuchi was to be present, to speak for us. 

We mounted and rode along the wide street facing the castle-moat, 
which was lined on one side by the yashikis of the chief men of the 
clan, and called Daimio Avenue. A few minutes' ride brought us to 
one of the gates called Priests' Gate, and, riding inside of another wall 
and moat, we reached the main entrance to the Han Cho, and dis- 
mounted. The gate was the same as that seen in front of all large 
yashikis and official places in Japan, like two massive crosses with 
their arms joined end to end. We passed up the broad stone path 
through a yard covered with pebbles. Before the door was a large 



428 THE mK ADO'S EMPIRE. 

raised portico or vestibule. Kneeling pages waited to receive us, and 
an officer in rustling silk came out to welcome us. 

We removed our shoes and entered. Passing along a corridor of 
soft and scrupulously clean mats, we reached the hall of audience, into 
which we were ushered with due ceremony. The pages and attend- 
ants kneeled down, while the daiinio and his six ministers rose to re- 
ceive us. Tables, chairs, and hand - shakings were new things then, 
yet they were there. I advanced and bowed to the prince, who ap- 
proached me and extended his hand, uttering what I afterward learned 
were words of welcome. After shaking hands, he put an autograph 
letter in my hand. Iwabuchi from the first had fallen down on his 
hands, knees, and face, and talked with uplifted eyes. I was next in- 
troduced to his long-named high retainers, and then we all sat down 
to the table. It was piled up with tall pyramids of half -peeled 
oranges and sliced sponge-cake — the usual orthodox Japanese refresh- 
ments. In the centre was a huge bouquet, composed entirely of twigs 
of plum blossoms and the steely, silver-glossy shoots of a wild plant, 
surrounded at the base with camellias of many tints, both single and 
double. The little pages — pretty boys of ten or twelve — brought us 
tiny cups of tea in metal sockets. As we lifted out the cups, they 
bowed low, and slid away. 

The prince and his ministers handed me their cards, imposing slips 
of white paper, inscribed with their names and titles in Chinese char- 
acters. They were as follows : 

Matsudaira Mochiaki, Governor of the Fukui Han ; Ogasawara 
Morinori, Daisanji (Great Minister) ; Murata Ujihisa, Daisanji (Great 
Minister) ; Sembon Hisanobu (Yice-great Minister) ; Otani (Minister) ; 
Omiya Sadakiyo (Chamberlain). 

Then followed a lively conversation, which kept Iwabuchi's two 
tongues busy for nearly an hour. Icy etiquette melted into good-hu- 
mor, and good -humor flowed into fun. At the end of that time we 
had made the mutual discovery that we could get along together very 
well. American freedom and Japanese ease made strangers friends. Ed- 
ucation and culture easily bridge the gulf that lies between two races, 
religions, and civilizations. I felt perfectly at home in the presence of 
these courtly and polished gentlemen, and an hour passed very pleasantly. 

The daimio's autograph letter ran as follows : 

" It is a matter of congratulation that the President of your coun- 
try is in good health. 



RECEPTION BY THE DAIMIO.—MY STUDENTS. 



429 



" I greatly rejoice and am obliged to you that you have arrived so 
promptly from so great distance over seas and mountains, to teach the 
sciences to the youth of Fukui. 

" Concerning matters connected with the school and students, the 
officers in charge of education will duly consult you. 

" As Fukui is a secluded place, you will be inconvenienced in many 
respects. Whenever you have need of any thing, please make your 
wants known without ceremony. 

"Matsudaira, Fukui Han- Chip." 



These words struck the key-note of my whole reception in Fukui. 
During the entire year of my residence, unceasing kindnesses were 
showered upon me. From the prince and officers to the students, 
citizens, and the children, who learned to know me and welcome me 
with smiles and bows and " Good-morning, teacher," I have nothing 
to record but respect, consideration, sympathy, and kindness. My eyes 
were opened. I needed no revolver, nor were guards necessary. I 
won the hearts of the people, and among the happiest memories are 
those of Fukui. 

Among those whom I learned to love was the little son of the dai- 
mio, a sprightly, laughing little fellow, four or five years old, with snap- 
ping eyes, full of fun, and as lively 
as an American boy. Little Mat- 
sudaira wore a gold-hilted short 
sword in his girdle ; while a lad 
of thirteen, his sword-bearer, at- 
tended him, to carry the longer 
badge of rank. His head was 
shaved, except a round space like 
a cap, from which a tiny cue pro- 
jected. The photograph which 
his father gave me and the wood- 
cut do but scant justice to the 
exquisitely delicate brown tint 
of his skin, flushed with health, 
his twinkling black eyes, his rosy 
cheeks, and his arch ways, that 
convinced his mother that he was A Little Daimi5 ' (From a P hot °s ra P h -> 
the most beautiful child ever born of woman. I often met him in 
Fukui and, later, in Tokio. He is to be educated in the United States. 

28 




430 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

As yet I had seen little of the city in which I expected to dwell for 
three years. I had reached the goal of my journeyings. Hitherto, in 
all my travels, Fukui loomed up in my imagination, and, spite of my 
actual experience of Japanese towns, the ideal Fukui was a grand city. 
All the excitement of travel was now over, and I was to see the actual 
Fukui. I rode around the castle circuit, and out into the city, and for 
a long distance through its streets. I was amazed at the utter pover- 
ty of the people, the contemptible houses, and the tumble-down look 
of the city, as compared with the trim dwellings of an American town. 
I rode through many streets, expecting at last to emerge into some 
splendid avenue. I rode in vain ; and, as I rode, the scales fell from 
my eyes. There was no more excitement now to weave films of gla- 
mour before my vision. I saw through the achromatic glasses of act- 
uality. I realized what a Japanese — an Asiatic city — was. All the 
houses of wood, the people poor, the streets muddy, few signs of 
wealth, no splendid shops. Talk of Oriental magnificence and luxu- 
ry ! What nonsense ! I was disgusted. My heart sunk. A desper- 
ate fit of the blues seized me. I returned home, to chew the cud of 
gloomy reflections. 




Servant before his Master. 

Fukui was the home of Kusakabe, my former student, who died in 
New Brunswick. His father had heard of my coming. In the after- 
noon he called to see me. A lacquered trayful of very fine oranges, 
on which lay the peculiarly folded paper, betokening a gift, and a slip 
of paper written with Chinese characters — the visiting-card — was 
handed me by Sahei, who, as usual, fell down on all fours, with face 
on his hands, as though whispering to the floor. It was the Oriental 
way of visiting with a gift in the hand. He had come to the house 
by way of the rear instead of the front gate, in token of humility on 



RECEPTION BY THE DA1MI0.—MT STUDENTS. 431 

his part and honor to me. I bid my servant usher him in, and a 
sad-looking man of fifty or more years entered. Through Iwabuchi 
his story was soon told. His wife had died of grief on hearing of 
her son dying a stranger in a strange land. Two very young sons 
were living. His other children, five in number, were dead. His 
house was left unto him desolate. I gave him the gold key of the 
Phi Beta Kappa Society, of Rutgers College, into which his son had 
been elected, he having stood at the head of his class. His father re- 
ceived the emblem reverently, lifting it to his forehead. 

On the next day my regular work was to begin. Horses were sent 
again, and I rode to the school, a building which was the citadel of 
the castle, and was once the residence of the old prince. I was met 
by the officers of the school in the room I was to occupy. On the 
table were sponge-cake, oranges, and plum-blossom bouquets, as usual, 
while the omnipresent tea was served, and the tiny pipes were smoked. 
It was very evident that the men who had been desirous of a teacher 
of chemistry had very nebulous ideas about what that science was. 
However, they were ready, with money and patience, to furnish the 
necessary apparatus and lecture -room; and our preliminaries being 
agreed on, I was conducted through the other rooms to see the sights 
of the school. 

I was surprised to find it so large and flourishing. There were in 
all about eight hundred students, comprised in the English, Chinese, 
Japanese, medical, and military departments. A few had been study- 
ing English for two or three years, under native teachers who had 
been in Nagasaki. In the medical department I found a good collec- 
tion of Dutch books, chiefly medical and scientific, and a fine pair of 
French dissection models, of both varieties of the human body. In 
the military school was a library of foreign works on military subjects, 
chiefly in English, several of which had been translated into Japanese. 
In one part of the yard young men, book, diagram, or trowel in hand, 
were constructing a miniature earthwork. The school library, of En- 
glish and American books — among which were all of Kusakabe's — 
was quite respectable. In the Chinese school I found thousands of 
boxes, with sliding lids, filled with Chinese and Japanese books. Sev- 
eral hundred boys and young men were squatted on the floor, with 
their teachers, reading or committing lessons to memory, or writing 
the Chinese characters. Some had already cut off their top-knots.* 

* In one of the popular street-songs hawked about and sung in the streets of 



432 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 




Student burning the Miduight Oil. (Photograph from life.) 

At one end of the buildings were large, open places devoted to 
physical exercise. Several exhibitions of trials of skill in fencing and 
wrestling were then made for my benefit. Six of the students repair- 
ed to the armory and put on the defensive mail, to shield themselves 
in the rough work before them — as Japanese swords are for use with 
both hands, having double-handed hilts without guards. The foils 
for fencing are made of round, split bamboo, and a good blow will 
make one smart, and bruise the flesh. So the fencing - master and 
students first donned a corselet, with shoulder-plates of hardened hide 
padded within, and heavily padded gauntlets. On their heads were 
wadded caps, having a barred visor of stout iron grating. Taking 
their places, with swords crossed, they set to. All the passes are cufr 



Fukui, Ozaka, and Tokio, at this time was a stanza satirizing the three fashions of 
wearing the hair: in Western style; in the fashion of the Osei, or ante-feudal era; 
and the orthodox samurai mode. One's political proclivities were thus expressed 
by his hair. An unshaven head with all the hair worn, hut made into a top-knot 
cue, marked the wearer as a " mikado -reverencer," or believer in the princi- 
ples of the Osei era. A head shaven on the mid -scalp and temples, with cue, 
denoted one who clung to the mediaeval ideals of feudalism. A short-haired 
head, clipped and cueless, like a Westerner, was a sign of foreignizing tenden- 
cies. The students led this fashion. The cut represents one at night, studying 
by the light of his paper lantern, inside which is a dish of oil, with pith wick. 
To the right of his little study-table are his brush-pens, in their usual porcelain 
receptacle; and behind him is his library or book-case, in which the books are 
ranged, with their edges outward. In a Japanese library, the titles of all works 
are marked on their edge as well as the cover. 



RECEPTION BY THE DAIMIO.—MT STUDENTS. 433 

ting blows, thrusting being unknown. Pretty severe whacks are given, 
and some bruising done, spite of armor. Foils are used up like lances 
in a tournament. The young men kept up the mimic battle for fif- 
teen minutes, or as long as their wind and muscle lasted, and the se- 
vere ordeal was over, the victory being won by those who had given 
what would have been disabling w T ounds had swords been used. 
Then followed, by another set of students, the spear exercise. Long 
spears were used first, and several fine passes in carte and tierce were 
made ; the offensive and defensive were tried alternately, to show me 
all the various thrusts and foils of the science. 

The party having short spears succeeded, the manoeuvres being dif- 
ferent. So far it was mere scientific display, no one being severely 
punched. At a signal of the clappers another set took blunt spears, 
leaped into the arena, and a sham fight began, the thrusts being real 
lunges that knocked down and bruised the limbs or damaged the 
breathing apparatus of the man put hors du combat quite badly. In 
about five minutes half the party were down, and the remainder, all 
crack lances, continued the battle for several minutes longer, with 
some fine display, but no mortal thrusts. They were called off, and 
the men with sword and cross-spear began a trial of skill. The cross- 
spear is long, like a halberd, with a two-edged blade set at right an- 
gles across it within six inches from the top. It is intended especially 
for defense against a sword, or a horse soldier. In this instance, one 
or two of the swordsmen were jerked to the floor or had their helmets 
torn off ; while, on the other side, the halberdiers suffered by having 
their poles struck by severing blows of their opponents' swords or 
actually received the " pear-splitter " stroke which was supposed to 
cleave their skulls. 

Next followed wrestling. Though a cold day in winter, the stu- 
dents were dressed only in coarse sleeveless coats of hemp cloth. Ap- 
proaching each other, they clinched and threw. The object seemed 
to be to show how an unarmed man might defend himself. Wrest- 
lings and throwings were followed by sham exhibitions that bore a 
frightful resemblance to real choking, dislocation of arm, wringing of 
the neck, etc. Throughout the exhibition, the contestants, while at- 
tacking each other, uttered unearthly yells and exclamations. I was 
highly impressed with the display, and could not fail to admire the 
splendid, manly physique of many of the lads. 

I waited to see the school dismissed, that I might see my pupils in 
the open air. At the tapping of the clapperless bell, the students put 



434 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

away their brushes, ink -stones, and sticks of ink, wrapped up theii 
books and portable matter in square pieces of silk or calico, making 
neat bundles ; put their short swords, which lay at their sides, in their 
girdles ; and each and all bowing low, with face to the floor, to their 
teachers, rose up and went, first, to the sword -room to put on their 
loug swords. This was a large apartment near the entrance, in which 
were rows of numbered racks, containing seven hundred or more 
swords. Each student presented his check or ticket of branded pine 
wood, and his sword was handed him by one of the keepers. Thrust- 
ing it in his girdle, and adjusting the pair, each scholar passed to the 
clog-room, where seven hundred pairs of clogs or sandals were stow- 
ed in numbered order. These set on the ground, and the owner's 
toes bifurcating into the thong, the student added a half-cubit to his 
stature, and trudged homeward. The scraping and clatter of hundreds 
of wooden clogs over the long stone bridge were deafening. All were 
bare-headed, with the top -knot, cue, and shaven mid -scalp, most of 
them with bare feet on their clogs, and with their characteristic dress, 
swagger, fierce looks, bare skin exposed at the scalp, neck, arms, calves, 
and feet, with their murderous swords in their belts, they impressed 
upon my memory a picture of feudalism I shall never forget. 

As I walked, I wondered how long it would require to civilize such 
" barbarians." Here were nearly a thousand young samurai. What 
was one teacher among so many? Could it be possible that these 
could be trained to be disciplined students ? These were my thoughts 
then. A few months later, and I had won their confidence and love. 
I found they were quite able to instruct me in many things. I need 
fear to lose neither politeness nor sense of honor among these earnest 
youth. In pride and dignity of character, in diligence, courage, gen- 
tlemanly conduct, refinement and affection, truth and honesty, good 
morals, in so far as I knew or could see, they were my peers. Love 
is always blind, they say. Was it so in this case 2 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HO USE. 435 



IX. 

LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 

Now that the excitement of travel was over, I settled down to my 
duties, to survey the place and surroundings, and to try and under- 
stand the life around me. I first examined my quarters. 

The old mansion assigned to me was one hundred and ninety-seven 
years old. It had been in possession of the same family during that 
period. The house had been built on part of the site of Shibata's old 
castle, in which he and his band committed hara-kiri and underwent 
voluntary cremation. Across the river rose Atago yama. On this 
hill, Hideyoshi encamped with his army. A few score feet to the 
west of my gate was a stone on which tradition says Shibata stood 
when he drew an arrow to the head, and shot it into his enemy's 
camp, splitting the pole of the canopy, or mammoth umbrella, under 
which Hideyoshi sat. The moat which bounded the north side of 
my estate was part of the old fortress, and a few rods eastward stood 
a gate-way still intact, though no "harsh thunder" could be grated 
from its hinges, which rust had long united together. My whole 
estate was classic soil, and I suspect more than one old conservative 
growled to see the foreigner on the spot made sacred by Echizen's 
greatest hero, whose devotion to Yamato damashi ideals had been at- 
tested in blood, fire, and ashes. 

It was a grand old house of solid timber, with spacious rooms, and 
long, well-lighted corridors. It was sixty feet broad, by one hundred 
feet deep. Though of one story, it had an immense and lofty sloping 
roof and shaggy eaves. The rooms numbered twelve in all. The 
floors were laid with soft neat mats, and the paper sliding screens 
could all be taken out, if need were, to make a hall of vast area with 
many square columns. The corridors, which were ten feet wide, passed 
outside the rooms, yet were part of the house. The walls, where solid, 
were papered. The ceiling, of fine grained wood, was twelve feet from 
the floor. In the rear were the kitchen and servants' quarters. 

The entire estate comprised about ten acres, the sides of which, ex- 



436 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



tending inward to a depth of thirty feet, were lined with the dwellings 
of the former retainers and servants. In the central area had been 
gardens and stables. 

All these accessories to the mansion were in the rear. The front of 
the house looked out upon a long, beautiful garden. To the left was 
a wall of tiles and cement, too high for any inquisitive eyes to peep 
over, which extended all around the inclosure. Along the inner side 
was a row of firs. These trees had been planted by the first ancestor 
of the family that had followed Hideyasu to Fukui in the sixteenth 
century. They were now tall and grave sentinels, of mighty girth 
and wide-spreading limbs, that measured their height by rods and their 
shadows by furlongs. By day they cast grateful shade, and at night 
sifted the moonbeams, over the path. Near the end of the court-yard 
was the main gate, made of whole tree-trunks, and crowned by an im- 
posing roof. Just within it was the porter's 
lodge, where a studious old mom-ban (gate- 
keeper) kept watch and ward over the port- 
al, through which none could enter except 
men of rank and office. He usually had 
his nose inside a book when I saw him, for 
he was a great reader, and near-sighted. 
Near the lodge was a clump of trees, and 
beneath their shadow and protection had 
It was an ark cut out of solid stone, four 
feet high. Within it had been the sacred vases, mirror, and white 
paper, all holy symbols of the Shinto faith, which the family pro- 
fessed. All around the now neglected garden were blossoming ca- 
mellias, red as maiden blushes, or white as unstained innocence. On 
another hillock, tufted here and there with azaleas and asters, were 
several dwarfed pines. The rockery and fish-pond, long neglected, 
were overgrown and scarcely perceptible. Evidently it had been a 
charming place of great beauty, for the traces were yet to be seen 
of former care and adornment. To the right was an arm of one of 
the castle moats, full of running water. Beyond it's banks and mossy 
and flower-decked stone walls were the gardens of several samurai 
families, in which sweet rosy-cheeked children played, or boys fished, 
or pretty girls came down to look at the lotus - flowers. The echo 
of their merry laugh often reached me. In the deep parts of the 
stream, clear as crystal, darted the black, silvery, or speckled fish ; 
while in the shallower portions great turtles crawled and stuck their 




The Studious Gate-keeper, 
been the family shrine. 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 437 

wedge-like noses above the water. In summer the lotus-flowers grew 
and bloomed, slowly rising from the long roots in the ooze, unfolding 
their first emerging tips into glorious concave shields of green, two 
feet in diameter, corded beneath like the veins of a gladiator, and hold- 
ing on their bosses translucent pebbles of dew. Then rose the closed 
bolls, like a clasped hand that trembled with the trembling water, giv- 
ing no sign of the beauty within — the mighty flower in its bosom. 
Then, as the sunshine of summer fell aslant the cool water, the boll, 
tenderly and shyly, as if afraid, unfolded day by day until the splen- 
did revelation of the lotus was complete. Massive shield and glorious 
flower made a picture of unearthly loveliness to the child who strove 
to pluck the remote beauty, or to the adult to whom the lotus-flower 
is the emblem of eternal calm. The little Japanese child who first, 
with the glorifying eyes of childhood, looks upon its purity, finds in it 
an object of unspeakable delight. The mature believer in Buddha 
sees in it shadowed forth creative power, universe, and world-growth. 
The " lotus springs from the mud " is ever the answer of the Asiatic 
to him who teaches that the human heart is corrupt, and unable to 
cleanse itself. The calyx of the lotus is a triangle whose base is a cir- 
cle — symbols of spirit and form, of eternity and triunity. In Nirvana, 
Buddha sits on a lotus-flower. As the mortal body of the believer ap- 
proaches the cremation house, that the borrowed elements of his body 
may be liberated from their fleshly prison and returned to their pri- 
mordial earth and air, a stone carved to represent a lotus-flower re- 
ceives the bier. To the Buddhist the lotus is a thing of beauty, a joy 
forever, because the constant symbol of poetic and religious truth. 

I was glad they had put me in this old mansion. It was full of 
suggestive history. It had been a home. Pagan, heathen, Asiatic — 
it mattered not ; it was a home. Here in this garden the infant had 
been carried until a child — growing up, the playmate of the flowers 
and birds, amidst Nature, until it knew her moods, and loved her with 
the passionate fondness for her which is so intense in the people of 
these islands. Here children played among the flowers, caught their 
first butterflies, began their first stratagem by decoying the unwary fish 
with the hook, and picked off the lotus petals for banners, the leaves 
for sun-shades, and the round seeds to eat, or roll like marbles. Then, 
as the boys grew up, they put on the swords, shaved off their fore-hair, 
and progressed in the lore of Chinese sages and native historians, and 
were fired with the narratives of the exploits of Taiko and Yoritomo 
and Iyeyasu. ; while the girls grew in womanly grace and beauty, and 



438 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

perfected themselves in household etiquette and studied the " Woman's 
Great Learning." Then had come the marriage ceremonial, with no 
spoken vows, and made without priest or official, followed by festal 
cheer, wine, music, dance, and exchange of presents. Here the bride 
became mother. Hence, after one hundred days, she went with her 
child to the temple, where the robed and shaven bonze wrote a name- 
charm; and put it in the child's prayer-bag. In this house had been 




The Wedding Party. (From a Japanese painting on silk.) 

celebrated many a household festival. These rooms had echoed with 
merry laughter, or resounded with the groans and sobs of grief. Hence 
had gone out the funeral procession, when the bodies of loved parents 
were borne to the grave or the cremarium. The funeral cortege, with 
lanterns, and hearse of pure white wood borne on four men's shoulders, 
with robed bonzes and men in ceremonial dress and muffled swords, 
and women in pure white robes and half -moon-like caps of floss silk, 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HGUSE. 439 

had passed out this gate. Prayers had been read, candles lighted, bells 
tinkled, the corpse laid on the pyre, and the fire lighted by the broth- 
er of the deceased, and the ashes deposited in the vase in the family 
monument in that cemetery beside the mountain yonder. In this fam- 
ily oratory a new black tablet, gilt-lettered, was set among the ances- 
tral names, to be honored through coming generations. 

Every day some new discovery showed me that this had been a 
home. Birth, marriage, death, sickness, sorrow, joy, banquet — all the 
fullness of life, though not like ours, had sanctified it. I thought of 
the many journeys to Yedo and Kioto of the father on business, the 
sons on travel for culture and education, and the daughter for relig- 
ion's sake, or to the distant home of her husband. I pictured the 
festival days, the feast of dolls for the girls, when the great nursery- 
room was decked with all the rich toys with which girls delight to 
mimic the real life of motherhood and housekeeping, which is but a 
few years off. There stood the bamboo poles on which was hung the 
huge paper carp, to show that a boy had been born during the year, 
or that the heir of the house would rise in the world and surmount 
all difficulties, like a carp leaps the water-fall. New-year's-day had 
come to this house, the only time when profound Sabbath reigns in 
Japan. Then the servants and retainers pledged anew their loyalty, 
congratulated their master, and received gifts of money and clothes. 
I thought of the religious festivals when the mansion and all the ten- 
antry of the estate hung out gay lanterns, and the master's household, 
like a great heart, sympathized in the birth, death, marriage, sorrow, 
or joy of the tenantry. Thus, for centuries in this dwelling, and on 
this ancestral estate, lived the family in peace and prosperity. 

Then came foreigners and many troubles — civil war, revolution, the 
overthrow of the shogun, the restoration of the mikado, the threaten- 
ed abolition of the feudal system. Great changes altered the condi- 
tion of Fukui. The revenues of the estate were reduced, the family 
moved to humbler quarters, the retainers and tenantry dispersed, and 
now the foreigner was here. 

All this I found out gradually, but with each bit of revelation the 
old mansion wore new charms. I loved to walk in the grand old gar- 
den at night, shut in from all but the stars and the faint murmur of 
the city, and the few glimmering lights on the mountain across the 
river, or when the moon sifted her beams through the tall firs, or 
bathed her face among the lotus-flowers in the moat, or silvered the 
ivy on the wall. I had come hither to be a builder of knowledge, to 



440 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

help bring the new civilization that must destroy the old. Yet it was 
hard to be an iconoclast. I often asked myself the question — Why 
not leave these people alone ? They seem to be happy enough ; and 
he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. The sacredness of 
human belief and reverence had consecrated even the old shrine, and 
other hands than mine must remove the stones of the deserted fane. 
What vulgarity to mate a dining-room of the family oratory, where 
the ancestral tablets once stood, and the sacred lights and incense burn- 
ed ! I found tied to the front of the house a case of light wood, con- 
taining an amulet, written in Sanskrit and Chinese, for the protection 
of the house. I took it down, for I had no faith in its protection; 
but I kept it carefully as a curious memento, because others had trust- 
ed in it, and every thing human is sacred, even faith, if our own is. 
I found nailed on the inner lintel of the great gate a pile of charms of 
thin wood, to ward off disease and evil. One had been added every 
year, like strata upon strata, until the deposit was a half-foot thick. 
They had on them the name and seal of the temple in which they had 
been written, and were inscribed with Sanskrit quotations from the 
sacred books. 

Under the new administration, the personnel of my establishment 
was as follows: My interpreter, Iwabuchi, occupied a pleasant little 
house in the rear and within call, so as to be ready to assist me when 
visitors came, though most of them went first to Iwabuchi's house. 
I found that even in the kitchen the feudal spirit of grades and ranks 
was strictly observed. My cook had an assistant, who himself had a 
small boy, who often hired ^ther small boys to do his work. My 
"boy," or body - servant, had another man to help him. Even the 
betto, or groom, employed an underling to do all the actual manual 
work. Theoretically, it required a large force of men to guard and 
wait on the foreigner, and I was amazed to find myself so famous and 
surrounded. 

To begin at the height of rank and honor : first, there was the dai- 
mio's officer, who had been appointed to look after my wants. He 
had an office for daily use in one of the distant rooms of the building. 
Under him was a subofficial, and also a clerk. These three men were 
considered necessary, as foreigners were known to have many wants, 
to require troublesome attention. Then, the foreigner was a stranger 
in the city and neighborhood, and as the people were unfamiliar with 
men of his strange breed, some of them might insult him, or a wan- 
dering jo-i (foreigner -hater) might kill him, in which case an in- 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 



441 



demnity of fifty thousand dollars would have to be paid by the Gov- 
ernment. Hence, four stalwart samurai, each with their two swords, 
were set apart for my protection. These escorted me to and from 
school, and went with me in my walks and rides, and at first were 
very serviceable guides, until my familiarity with the language and 
people, and my perception of their perfectly harmless character, made 
these armed men bores. They performed duty on alternate days, and 
occupied a part of the long house to the left. Then, there were five 
or six of the larger students, who wished to live near their teacher. 
They occupied another room under the same roof with the four 
guards. At the rear entrance to the inclosure of my house was an- 
other gate and porter's lodge, in which a man kept watch and ward, 
admitting none but the privileged, though all who entered here were 
of much lower rank than those who came to the front gate. To man 
the two gates — front and rear — a corps of eight men were appointed, 
who did duty alternately. Their duties were not onerous. They con- 
sisted in reading, eating, sleeping, drinking tea, bowing to me as I 
passed, and keeping out stragglers. The long house, stretching away 
to the eastward, was full of folks of the humbler sort, with many chil- 
dren and babies, and of dogs not a few. These youngsters, with their 
quaint dress, curiously shaved heads, and odd ways, were often a 
source of great amusement to me. The fun reached its climax when 
they attempted to walk bamboo poles or turn somersaults on them, 




Boys playing on Bamboo Bars. (Hokusai.) 



442 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

often in the latter motion becoming real gymnasts, in the etymolog- 
ical sense of the word. In imitating wrestling-matches, they made 
a small arena of sand ringed by twisted rice-straw, and then the nude 
little dumplings of humanity, some of them less than four years old, 
stamped their feet, eat their salt, rinsed their mouths, slapped their 
knees, and then clinched in mimic rage, tugging away until victory 
was declared for one or the other, by the Lilliputian judge with fan 
in hand. Even the applause, to the casting in the ring of fans and 
garments to be redeemed, as in the real triumph of the elephantine fat 
fellows, who look as though stuffed with blubber by means of a sau- 
sage-blower, were given with comical accuracy of imitation. When 
the infant Hercules got hold of his antagonist's clout — the master- 
grip of the game, which put the unlucky one " in chancery," a shout 




The Grip of Victory. 

went up from the spectators like the Roman " habet " or the modern 
prize-fighter's cheers. Even the dogs seemed to enjoy the fun, while 
mothers and nurse -maids, with babies strapped on their backs, over- 
flowed in a new stream of palaver. 

Of the inmates of my house I must not omit mention. My serv- 
ant was selected and brought to me on the first day of my arrival, and 
shown his future master. Falling down upon his hands and knees, 
and bowing his forehead to the floor, he murmured something which 
was meant to be a promise of good and faithful service. Then, rais- 
ing his body, he sat upon his knees and heels, and waited further or- 
ders. I own I was not prepossessed. Sahei was less than sixty inches 
high, with a remarkably ugly phiz, thick protruding lips, flat nose — not 
always scrupulously attended to — and eyes of the dull, alligator hue so 
common among the lower classes. His skin was of the most unsatis- 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 443 

factory tint. His motions were ungraceful. His hands and feet, for 
a Nihonese, were clumsy. His scalp and cue — strong points in the 
tout ensemble of a handsome native — were not attractive. My first 
sight of him awakened regrets that Sasaki had not selected a hand- 
somer specimen of his people to wait on me. When one has a stran- 
ger daily under his nose and eyes, the aesthetics of physical form and 
face assume a vast degree of importance. I yearned for a more comely 
form, more attractive face, and more delicately tinted skin. I thought 
of the pretty pages in the prince's palace, and the fine-looking boys 
with smooth, cafe-au-lait skins and rosy cheeks in school. " I shall 
keep Sahei a few weeks in deference to the official who recommended 
him ; then I shall get a handsomer boy," thought I, as I dismissed 
him for a while. I was also at first disappointed in my new servant, 
supposing him to be single. I had intended to have a married man 
with a family, that I might be able to see more of actual Japanese life 
under my own roof. A bachelor's quarters afford a poor field for the 
study of the home life of a people. I was greatly and pleasantly dis- 
appointed. Sahei was not from the rice-fields. He had traveled to 
Tokio, had been in the war as a page, and was intelligent and fit to 
wait on a gentleman. He had once been a carpenter by trade, and 
could do handy jobs about the house, and he did help me greatly to 
make things comfortable when it would cost too much time and trou- 
ble to set the whole official machinery of Fukui in motion to drive a 
nail, or put up a shelf for flower-vase, or a little Paris clock. Sahei 
was more comely in character than in person. Cheerful, faithful, dili- 
gent, careful of his master, quick to answer his call, tender of him as 
to a child, and though a heathen, Sahei was, according to Pope's defi- 
nition, the noblest work of God. He was not only honest in handling 
his master's money, but as alert as a watch-dog to guard against im- 
position, or loss through ignorance. Furthermore, Sahei had a family 
— wif e, baby, and child's maid. This I did not learn until a week aft- 
erward, when he came to announce with shame, and as if expecting my 
displeasure, that he had a wife ; she waiting behind the entry door-way 
to hear what the danna san (master) would say. Might he present 
her to me? His delight at my pleased surprise betrayed itself in a 
broad grin, and in a moment more he was leading his baby by the 
hand, while his wife waddled forward, accompanied by her little maid. 
Mother, baby, and maid, in succession, fell on their knees, and polished 
their foreheads on their hands laid prone on the matting. Then, sit- 
ting on their heels, they bashfully looked up at their new master. I 



444 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

bid them all stand up, and took their photograph in my eye. The 
imposing physique of Mrs. Sahei utterly dwarfed her insignificant lord, 
and suggested a contrast between a pudding and a tart. She was of 
healthily tinted skin of lighter shade, with black eyes that sparkled 
as though her head were a voltaic battery and her eyes the terminals. 
Closer acquaintance confirmed my impressions of her. She was an af- 
fectionate mother, and a jealous and careful wife. Continually bub- 
bling over with fun, she reminded me, when laughing, of a bowl full of 
jelly when well shaken. She was a diligent worker. Her tongue was 
as sharp as a freshly honed razor, especially after her liege lord had 
spent too much money on geishas and sake ; for the otherwise exem- 
plary Sahei had two weaknesses, which were evident even to his mas- 
ter. He would occasionally make his throat a funnel for sake, and he 
delighted to spend an occasional evening amidst the fascinations of 
the singing girls, coming home late at night, with flushed veins and a 
damaged purse, to meet with a Caudle lecture on his return. Here 
was the bakuf u, or " curtain government," of a sort quite different from 
that we read of at Kamakura. I always knew, by Sahei's sheepish 
looks and the general flavor of demoralization in his appearance next 
morning, when he had been eating forbidden and costly fruit. 

The baby was as pretty and bright-eyed a morsel of flesh as one 
could wish to see. His name was Sataro (first-born darling of Sahei). 
He was two years old, just able to keep his centre of gravity, and voy- 
age across the rooms and through the house, with only an occasional 
sprawl on the matting. Baby, on his first introduction, bobbed his 
head in adult style, and chirped out, " Ohaio, sensei " (good-morning, 
teacher), his baby talk making it sound like " chen-chey." I immedi- 
ately dubbed him " Chenkey." Let me give his photograph. Chen- 
key was a chubby boy, with rosy cheeks, sparkling black eyes, skin al- 
most as light in tint and as soft and smooth as an American mother's 
darling. His head was shaved entirely, except a round spot on the 
back part; his mother shaved his diminutive pate once a week, and 
usually kept him so sweet and wholesome that a romp with him rare- 
ly involved damage from sticky lips or soiled baby hands. 

I must not forget Obun (tea-tray), the little maid who attended to 
Chenkey, carried him about, dressed him, and made her back a seat 
for him. Obun was eleven years old, a thin, frail, sad-looking child, 
that freshened up under a kind word like a wilted flower when touched 
by rain-drops. Obun evidently had heard the dreadful stories about 
the foreigners, and believed them. Timidly, and with suppressed fear, 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 



445 



she had come to greet the sensei, and only after days and weeks of fa- 
miliar intercourse and serving me at table could she lay aside her fears. 
Even then she was a sad-eyed, dreamy child, always looking down deep- 
ly and solemnly into flowers, or gazing at the blue sky or the distant 
mountains, or watching the stars at evening. Obun had had a hard 
life of it. Her mother had died in giving her birth, and the orphan 
was then bandied about among nurses and relatives until she was old 
enough to take care of a baby, when she was given as a servant to 
Sahei for her food and clothes. 

The personnel of Sahei's establishment did not end with wife, baby, 
and maid. It was not for the lord of the kitchen to draw water, clean 
fish, and do the work of the scullery. Not he. For this he must 

have a boy. "That boy" was 
Gonji. Gonji's wages were his 
rice and robes — two of the lat- 
ter per annum. He was scarce- 
ly worth his full rations. Lazy, 
and uniquely stupid in some 
things, and bright enough in 
others, the keenness of his ap- 
petite kept pace with the capac- 
ity of his stomach. His favorite 
occupations were worrying dogs, 
playing with Chenkey, on whom 
he doted, and amusing himself at 
watching the sensei, whose very 
existence was a profound mystery 
to him, and whose every motion 
was a subject of wondering cogi- 
tation. Sometimes, when spruced up, he enjoyed the honor of waiting 
on the danna san. To see the white man eat, threw Gonji in a brown 
study at once, as on knees and heels, with waiter before him, he an- 
ticipated my wants. 

Every day of my life in the old mansion was full of novelty. Ev- 
ery trivial event was a chink to let in a new ray of light upon Japa- 
nese life, character, or ideas. One day Obun came into the dining- 
room after dinner, looking around for something, and answering my 
inquiring eye with the words "0 mama. 1 '' "What do you mean, 
child ? Do you think your mother is alive, and where did you learn 
that English?" While I was pondering the problem of the possible 

29 




Gonji in a Brown Study. 



446 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

affinity of the Japanese with the Aryan languages, the little maid seized 
an empty plate, appearing surprised at its emptiness, and went out. 
I afterward found that o mama meant " boiled rice," which I had used 
to feed a flock of sacred pigeons belonging to the big temple near by, 
which sometimes flew into my garden. 

Sahei's family had no sooner comfortably installed themselves in 
the servants' quarters than their evening bath must be got ready. 
The old mansion, like all Japanese houses, was provided with a huge 
caldron and furnace quite near the house, for heating water for the 
bath taken daily by every member of every Japanese family. Although 
somewhat familiar with the sight of Eves, innocent of fig-leaves, tub- 
bing themselves in the open street in broad daylight, I had supposed 
the presence of the foreigner and stranger would deter any exhibi- 
tion of female nudity in or about my house in Fukui. Yain thought ! 
The good wife innocently disrobed, unmindful of the cold air, im- 
mersed and made her bath and toilet, with Chenkey in her arms. 
Having finished, she was followed by Obun, then by her husband, 
brother, uncle, and Gonji, in succession, who had been about and 
around, heating and carrying the water. I can not call them specta- 
tors, for they took no interest whatever, except as assistants, in the 
spectacle, which to them was an ordinary sight, awakening no other 
emotions than those we feel in seeing a female face or hand. 

Night came — glorious moonlight nights they were in Fukui. In 
the kitchen the servants lighted their lamps — a long slender wick of 
pith, in a dish of oil, set half-way up in a square paper-shaded frame, 
three feet high — a standing lantern, in the base of which were sulphur- 
tipped chips, or matches, and flint, steel, and tinder. Or, they set a 
hollow paper -wicked candle, made of vegetable tallow, in a copper, 
bronze, or wooden candlestick two feet high. 

" These people have a theory of candles," thought I, " as Symmes 
had about the earth. Both theories are opposed to orthodoxy. 
Symmes's world and a Japanese candle both have a hole through 
them ; but the former theory is representative of a fact, while the lat« 
ter is not yet proved to be so." These hollow candles are stuck on a 
spike, not set in a socket like ours. The French and English buy this 
vegetable tallow in Japan, bleach it, and import the " wax " candles 
made from it, selling to the Japanese at an advanced price. It hap- 
pened once, so I have read, that a Japanese junk drifted to the shores 
of California. A newspaper reporter announced in type, with sensa- 
tional intent, next day, that the junk had been salt-water-logged so 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 



447 



long that the wick had been entirely corroded by the action of the 
water, until the candle had a hole entirely through it ! 

In my own room, I had my Connecticut lamp, well fed with Penn- 
sylvania petroleum. 

The snow had begun to melt, and, at intervals, a heavy, thunderous 
noise overhead told of a huge snow-slide — the accumulation of winter 
sliding off. Over the castle and city and yashiki gates, and over the 
doors of houses, I had noticed a long timber bar riveted to the roof, 
which prevented the snow from falling on the heads of people below, 
while it slid freely in other places. Anon the whirring of wings, and 
the screaming of the flocks of wild geese as they clove the air, told 




Night Scene on the River-flats. (Hoknsai.) 

how these restless birds enjoyed the night as well as the day. These 
geese were my nocturnal barometer. I could tell from the height or 
lowness of their flight, and the volume of sound of their throats, what 
were the " weather probabilities " for the morrow. 

A view from my garden-gate included the street, the river-flats, a 
few boats like black spots on the water, the bridge, and the masts ris- 
ing spectrally beyond Atago yama with its twinkling lights, people 
returning home, and coolies hurrying along with belated travelers. 
The moon shone overhead, but yet, dimly seen, reminded me vividly 
of a sketch by one of the native artists, whose great merits and pe- 
culiarities I was then beginning to appreciate and distinguish. I could 



448 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

hear the voices outside, the women's chatting, the children's prattle, 
and the coolies' grunt. 

The crows of Fukui were as numerous, merry, audacious, and ab- 
surd as their black brethren in the pine-roosts of New Jersey or the 
corn-fields of Pennsylvania. I wondered who it was who had lived 
in Japan three months, and then innocently asked if there were any 
crows in the country. These filthy feeders amused me daily with 
their noisy conventions, or their squabbles around the kitchen refuse. 
Occasionally they ventured on bolder raids. On one occasion a state- 
ly raven, seeing through the window a morsel of bread on the break- 
fast-table, meditated a theft. A Japanese crow of the olden time 
ought not, in the nature of things, to be expected to understand either 
the chemical composition or the physical properties of that familiar 
alkaline silicate called glass. Viewing with his raven eye from his 
eyrie in the firs that morsel of bread, and knowing well the virtues of 
wheat, our crow made a dash with outspread wings and beak at the 
bread. • The result was a badly stunned bird with a bumped head and 
nearly broken beak. Nothing daunted, my "Nevermore" gathered 
himself up, and proceeded to survey the situation. Here was a new 
and puzzling subject of study. Glass was evidently a new phenome- 
non. It was transparent and hard, yet there was the bread, and the 
crow's craw was empty. What was it, this invisible and pervisual 
barrier ? It was not water, nor yet air. Perhaps it was ice, and Mr. 
Crow laid his eye against the pane to test the temperature — flattening 
it like a child its nose on a rainy Sunday. Ah ! happy thought ! per- 
haps it would yield to blows. 

Perseverantia omnia vincit. Tap, tap, tap, sounded the pick- like 
beak on the tough glass pane with a regularity less gentle than that 
of Poe's ebony visitor. All in vain, however ; the pane yielded not, 
the tantalizing bread had to be yielded, and the black Tantalus flew 
off with its dismal " Nevermore," to report adversely to its comrades, 
and hold a debate on the subject of the unknowable. Despair brood 
ed, not on wisdom, but on a pine-tree. 

The black rascals were sometimes more successful. With impu 
dence almost human, and with cheek quite as hard, they would even 
occasionally fly into the house. One day Chenkey was standing on 
the veranda next the garden, eating a rice - cracknel, called kaminari 
sembei (thunder-cake). A vigilant karasu (crow) hopped from a tree- 
branch to the fence, and, pretending to be asleep, calmly watched his 
opportunity with one eye. Chenkey had just taken a bite, and turned 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 449 

his head around for a moment. In a trice the black thief had swoop- 
ed and stolen the cake. An incredible uproar of caws in the tree- 
tops, a few tears from Chenkey, and it was all over. 

Strange to say, the natives, as their poetry attests, hear in the hoarse 
notes of this sable bird the plaintive sounds of love. " Concerning 
tastes," and associations also, " it is not to be disputed." With us a 
lamb is an emblem of mildness ; with the Japanese, of stupidity, or 
even obstinacy. Should I call a native a goose (gan), he would see no 
more point in the allusion than if I called him a turkey or a pheasant. 
In Japan, sheep and tame geese are unknown, except from reading of 
them. The wild goose is one of the swiftest, most graceful, and alert 
birds. It is rather a compliment to be called a (Japanese) goose. 

There was a goodly number of rats in the old mansion, though they 
rarely disturbed me in the day-time. Their favorite place of playing 
what seemed to be foot-ball, or Congress, was over the ceilings, run- 
ning along the beams immediately above the rafters. The builder of 
the mansion had foreseen the future, and, with wise benevolence, had 
cut square holes through certain portions of the fine lattice-work that 
might be spoiled by irregular gnawing, and thus earned the gratitude 
of all rodent generations. I determined to be rid of these ancient 
pests, and went out in search of a cat. I saw a number of fat Tabi- 
thas and aldermanic Thomases which I asked for, or offered to pur- 
chase, in vain. I preferred a lean feline specimen that would seek 
the rats from motives of hunger, but I could get none. The people 
loved their pets too well. But one day, on passing a hemp shop, I 
saw a good-natured old lady sitting on her mats, with a fine tortoise- 
shell tabby, and instantly determined to get that cat. Accosting her 
with the usual bow, I said, in my best Japanese, " Good-morning, old 
lady. Will you sell me that cat? I should like to buy it." The 
American reader will question the propriety and my politeness in 
using the adjective old. Not so the Japanese. It is an honor to be 
addressed or spoken of as old. Every one called me " sensei " (elder- 
born, or teacher). One of the first questions which a Japanese will 
fisk you is, " How old are you ?" It is a question which American la- 
dies do not answer very promptly. But the questioner masks no in- 
sult. It is not in the same spirit as that of the young men who re- 
fer to their maternal parent as the " old woman." The old lady was 
pleased. Concerning the sale of her cat, however, she demurred. Her 
neko was a polite, well-bred animal. I was a foreigner from some out- 
landish place beyond the sea. Could she trust Puss with me ? With 



450 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



head inclining forty-five degrees over her left shoulder, she considered. 
Looking up, she said, " I will not sell you the cat ; but if you love it, 
you can have it." Of course, I loved it on the spot. Taking the 
name of the street, and number of the house, I sent Sahei for it. In- 
stalled in my dwelling, it proved to be handsome and lazy, disturbing 
but little the ancient population, which, however, never troubled me 
except by their frisky noise. My repeated invitations to a banquet of 
arsenic were as often declined, with thanks and squeals ; but on wrap- 
ping up a piece of seasoned meat in a small box in a tight bundle of 




Father and Children. 



paper, they partook luxuriantly and subsided. The old lady came oc- 
casionally to see her former pet, and found in the foreigner's house un- 
limited delight over photograph-album, stereoscope, and wall pictures, 
and endless food for wonder and subsequent gossip, at the home of 
her son and grandchildren — a very affectionate family, as I had occa- 
sion to witness, but with a weakness for sake. 

The most remarkable fact concerning the majority of cats in Japan 
is that they have no tails, or, at least, a mere stump or tuft, like a rab' 



LIFE IN A JAPANESE HOUSE. 451 

bit's. They resemble the Manx cat in this respect. Whether wholly- 
natural, or the long result of art, I could never satisfactorily determine. 
It always struck me as a great feline affliction, since the chief play- 
thing of a kitten is its tail. To run around after their caudal stumps 
was a sorry game in the Japanese cats, compared with the lively revo- 
lutions of those boasting twelve inches of tail. An American gentle- 
man once took one of these bob-tailed cats to California. The creat- 
ure had evidently never made the acquaintance of the long -tailed 
brethren of its species, and the unwonted sight of their terminal ap- 
pendages seemed to incite the feline nature of Japan to the highest 
pitch of jealousy and rage. It was continually biting, scratching, howl- 
ing, and spitting at other cats, invariably seizing their tails in its teeth 
when practicable. 

My other dumb companion in Fukui was a black dog, with but one 
eye. It was an American dog that had strayed away from Yokohama, 
and had followed the daimio's retinue across the country. Happen- 
ing to pass some farmers, who, reversing the proverb " Love me, love 
my dog," and hating foreigners, whom they believed to be descend- 
ants of these brutes, one of them struck the poor creature in the eye 
with a grass-hook, and made him a Cyclops from that moment. He 
was an affectionate animal, and apparently fully understood, as I could 
tell from the language of his tail, that I was one of his own country 
creatures, concentrating all his affection in his remaining orb. I was 
most amused at the name given him by the people. The Japanese 
word for dog is inu. Some of the young men who had been to Yo- 
kohama had heard the "hairy foreigners" calling their dogs by crack- 
ing their fingers and crying " Come here." This the Japanese sup- 
posed to be the name of the dog. Frequently in Fukui those who 
wished to display their proficiency in the barbarian language would 
point to my canine Cyclops, and cry out " Look at that ' Come-here;' 
how black he is i" " Oh ! see how fast the American man's ' Come- 
here ' is running !" 

With a cat, a one-eyed dog, gold-fish,* home flowers, and plenty of 
human life behind and about me, the city in view, the mountains 
round about, and the lovely solitude of garden and trees in front of 
me, and my books, I was happy in my immediate surroundings. 

* These were the kin-giyo (gold-fish) with triple tails, like lace, and variegated 
brilliant colors, which have been recently introduced into the United States. 



452 THE MIKADO'S UMPIRE. 



X. 

CHILDREN'S GAMES AND SPORTS* 

The aim of the Asiatic Society of Japan is, as I understand it, to 
endeavor to attain any and all knowledge of the Japanese country 
and people. Nothing that will help us to understand them is foreign 
to the objects of this society. While language, literature, art, relig- 
ion^ the drama, household superstitions, etc., furnish us with objects 
worthy of study, the games and sports of the children deserve our 
notice. For, as we believe, their amusements reflect the more serious 
affairs and actions of mature life. They are the foretastes and the 
prophecies of adult life which children see continually; not always 
understanding, but ever ready to imitate it. Hence in the toy-shops 
of Japan one may see the microcosm of Japanese life. In the chil- 
dren's sports is enacted the miniature drama of the serious life of the 
parents. Among a nation of players such as the Japanese may be 
said to have been, it is not always easy to draw the line of demarka- 
tion between the diversions of children proper and those of a larger 
growth. Indeed, it might be said that during the last two centuries 
and a half, previous to the coming of foreigners, the main business of 
this nation was play. One of the happiest phrases in Mr. Alcock's 
book is that " Japan is a paradise of babies ;" he might have added, 
that it was also a very congenial abode for all who love play. The 
contrast between the Chinese and Japanese character in this respect is 
radical. It is laid down in one of the very last sentences in the Tri- 
metrical Classic, the primer of every school in the Flowery Land, that 
play is unprofitable ! The whole character, manners, and even the 
dress, of the sedate and dignified Chinamen, seem to be in keeping 
with that aversion to rational amusement and athletic exercises which 
characterizes that adult population. 

In Japan, on the contrary, one sees that the children of a larger 

* Read by the author before the Asiatic Society of Japan, March 18th, 1874. 



CHILDREN'S GAMES AND SFOMTS. 



453 



I 



growth enjoy with equal zest games which are the same, or nearly the 
same, as those of lesser size and fewer years. Certain it is that the 
adults do all in their power to provide for 
the children their full quota of play and harm- 
less sports. We frequently see full-grown and 
able-bodied natives indulging in amusements 
which the men of the West lay aside with 
their pinafores, or when their curls are cut. If }tf\ 
we, in the conceited pride of our superior civ- 
ilization, look down upon this as childish, we 
must remember that the Celestial, from the 
pinnacle of his lofty and, to him, immeasura- 
bly elevated civilization, looks down upon our 
manly sports with contempt, thinking it a 
condescension even to notice them. 

A very noticeable change has passed over 
the Japanese people since the modern advent 
of foreigners, in respect of their love of 
amusements. Their sports are by no means 
as numerous or elaborate as formerly, and they 
do not enter into them with the enthusiasm 
that formerly characterized them. The chil- 
dren's festivals and sports are rapidly losing 
their importance, and some now are rarely 
seen. Formerly the holidays were almost as 
numerous as saints' days in the calendar. Ap- 
prentice-boys had a liberal quota of holidays 
stipulated in their indentures ; and as the chil- 
dren counted the days before each great holi- 
day on their fingers, we may believe that a 
great deal of digital arithmetic was being con- 
tinually done. We do not know of any 
country in the world in which there are so 
many toy-shops, or so many fairs for the sale 
of the things which delight children. Not 
only are the streets of every city abundantly 
supplied with shops, filled as full as a Christ- 
mas stocking with gaudy toys, but in small 
towns and villages one or more children's 
bazaars may be found. The most gorgeous IP Wwmw 



454 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

display of all things pleasing to the eye of a Japanese child is found 
in the courts or streets leading to celebrated temples. On a matsuri, 
or festival day, the toy -sellers and itinerant showmen throng with 
their most attractive wares or sights in front of the shrine or temple. 
On the walls and in conspicuous places near the churches and cathe- 
drals in Europe and America, the visitor is usually regaled with the 
sight of undertakers' signs and grave-diggers' advertisements. How 
differently the Japanese act in these respects, let any one see by visit- 
ing Asakusa, Kanda Miojin, or one of the numerous Inari shrines in 
Tokio on some great festival day. 

We have not space in this chapter to name or describe the numer- 
ous street -shows and showmen who are supposed to be interested 
mainly in entertaining children ; though in reality adults form a part, 
often the major part, of their audiences. Any one desirous of seeing 
these in full glory must ramble down Yanagi Cho (Willow Street), 
from Sujikai, in Tokio, on some fair day, and especially on a general 
holiday. 

Among the most common are the street theatricals, in which two, 
three, or four trained boys and girls do some very creditable acting, 
chiefly in comedy. Raree-shows, in which the looker-on sees the in- 
side splendors of a daimio's yashiki, or the fascinating scenes of the 
Yoshiwara, or some famous natural scenery, are very common. The 
showman, as he pulls the wires that change the scenes, entertains the 
spectators with songs. The outside of his box is usually adorned 
with pictures of famous actors or courtesans, nine-tailed foxes, devils 
of all colors, dropsical badgers, and wrathful husbands butchering 
faithless wives and their paramours, or some such staple horror in 
which the normal Japanese so delights. Story-tellers, posturers, 
dancers, actors of charades, conjurers, flute -players, song -singers are 
found on these streets ; but those who specially delight the children 
are the men who, by dint of breath and fingers, work a paste made of 
wheat-gluten into all sorts of curious and gayly smeared toys, such as 
flowers, trees, noblemen, fair ladies, various utensils, the "hairy for- 
eigner," the same with a cigar in his mouth, the jin-riki-sha, etc. 
Nearly every itinerant seller of candy, starch-cakes, sugared pease, and 
sweetened beans, has several methods of lottery by which he adds to 
the attractions on his stall. A disk having a revolving arrow, whirled 
round by the hand of a child, or a number of strings which are con- 
nected with the faces of imps, goddesses, devils, or heroes, lends the 
excitement of chance, and, when a lucky pull or whirl occurs, occasions 



CHILDREN'S GAMES AND SPOUTS. 455 

the subsequent addition to the small fraction of a cent's worth to be 
bought. Men or women itinerants carry a small charcoal brazier un- 
der a copper griddle, with batter, spoons, cups, and shoyu sauce, to 
hire out for the price of a cash each to the little urchins, who spend 
an afternoon of bliss making their own griddle-cakes and eating them, 
The seller of sugar-jelly exhibits a devil, taps a drum, and dances for 
the benefit of his baby-customers. The seller of mochi does the same, 
with the addition of gymnastics and skillful tricks with balls of 
dough. The fire-eater rolls balls of camphor paste glowing with 
lambent fire over his arms, and then extinguishes them in his mouth, 
The bug-man harnesses paper carts to the backs of beetles with wax, 
and a half-dozen in this gear will drag a load of rice up an inclined 
plane. The man with the magic swimming birds tips his tiny water- 
fowl with camphor, and floats them in a long narrow dish full of wa- 
ter. The wooden toys, propelled from side to side and end to end 
by the dissolving gum, act as if alive, to the widening eyes of the 
young spectators. In every Japanese city there are scores, if not 
hundreds, of men and women who obtain a livelihood by amusing the 
children. 

Some of the games of Japanese children are of a national character, 
and are indulged in by all classes. Others are purely local or exclu- 
sive. Among the former are those which belong to the special days, 
or matsuri, which in the old calendars enjoyed vastly more importance 
than under the new one. Beginning with the first of the year, there 
are a number of games and sports peculiar to this time. The girls, 
dressed in their best robes and girdles, with their faces powdered and 
their lips painted, until they resemble the peculiar colors seen on a 
beetle's wings, and their hair arranged in the most attractive coiffure, 
are out upon the street, playing battledore and shuttlecock. They 
play, not only in twos and threes, but also in circles. The shuttlecock 
is a round seed, often gilded, stuck round with feathers arranged like 
the petals of a flower. The battledore is a wooden bat ; one side of 
which is of bare wood, while the other has the raised effigy of some 
popular actor, hero of romance, or singing-girl in the most ultra-Japa- 
nese style of beauty. The girls evidently highly appreciate this game, 
as it gives abundant opportunity to the display of personal beauty, 
figure, and dress. Those who fail in the game often have their faces 
marked with ink, or a circle drawn round their eyes. The boys sing 
a song that the wind may blow ; the girls sing that it may be calm, so 
that their shuttlecocks may fly straight. The little girls, at this time, 



456 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

play with a ball made of cotton cord, covered elaborately with many 
strands of bright varicolored silk. 

Inside the house, they have games suited, not only for the day-time, 
but for the evenings. Many foreigners have wondered what the Jap- 
anese do at night, and how the long winter evenings are spent. On 
fair and especially moonlight nights, most of the people are out-of- 
doors, and many of the children with them. Markets and fairs are 
held regularly at night in Tokio, and in the other large cities. The 
foreigner living in a Japanese city, even if he were blind, could tell, by 
stepping out-of-doors, whether the weather were clear and fine or disa- 
greeable. On dark and stormy nights, the stillness of a great city like 
Tokio is unbroken and very impressive ; but on a fair and moonlight 
night, the hum and bustle tell one that the people are out in throngs, 
and make one feel that it is a city that he lives in. In most of the 
castle towns in Japan, it was formerly the custom of the people, espe- 
cially of the younger, to assemble on moonlight nights in the streets 
or open spaces near the castle-gates, and dance a sort of subdued dance, 
moving round in circles and clapping their hands. These dances oft- 
en continued during the entire night, the following day being largely 
consumed in sleep. In the winter evenings, in Japanese households 
the children amuse themselves with their sports, or are amused by 
their elders, who tell them entertaining stories. The samurai father 
relates to his son Japanese history and heroic lore, to fire him with en- 
thusiasm and a love of those achievements which every samurai youth 
hopes at some day to perform. Then there are numerous social en- 
tertainments, at which the children above a certain age are allowed to 
be present. But the games relied on as standard means of amusement, 
and seen especially about New-year's, are those of cards. In one of 
these, a large, square sheet of paper is laid on the floor. On this card 
are the names and pictures of the fifty-three post-stations between To- 
kio and Kioto. At the place Kioto are put a few coins, or a pile of 
cakes, or some such prizes, and the game is played with dice. Each 
throw advances the player toward the goal, and the one arriving first 
obtains the prize. At this time of the year also, the games of cards 
called, respectively, Iroha Garuta (Alphabet Cards), Hiyaku Nin Isshiu 
Garuta (One-Verse-of-One-Hundred-Poets Cards), Kokin Garuta, Gen- 
ji, and Shi Garuta are played a great deal. The Iroha Garuta (Kariita 
is the Japanized form of the Dutch Karte, English card) are small 
cards, each containing a proverb. The proverb is printed on one card, 
and the picture illustrating it upon another. Each proverb begins 



CHILDREN'S GAMES AND SPORTS. 457 

with a certain one of the fifty Japanese letters, t, ro, ha y etc., and so 
on through the syllabary. The children range themselves in a circle, 
and the cards are shuffled and dealt. One is appointed to be reader. 
Looking at his cards, he reads the proverb. The player who has the 
picture corresponding to the proverb calls out, and the match is made. 
Those who are rid of their cards first win the game. The one hold- 
ing the last card is the loser. If he be a boy, he has his face marked 
curiously with ink. If a girl, she has a paper or wisp of straw stuck 
in her hair. 

The Hiaku Nin Isshiu Garuta game consists of two hundred cards, 
on which are inscribed the one hundred stanzas, or poems, so cele- 
brated and known in every household. A stanza of Japanese poetry 
usually consists of two parts, a first and second, or upper and lower 
clause. The manner of playing the game is as follows : The reader 
reads half the stanza on his card, and the player having the card on 
which the other half is written calls out, and makes a match. Some 
children become so familiar with these poems that they do not need 
to hear the entire half of the stanza read, but frequently only the first 
word. 

The Kokin Garuta, or the game of Ancient Odes, the Genji Garuta, 
named after the celebrated Genji (Minamoto) family of the Middle 
Ages, and the Shi Garuta are all card-games of a similar nature, but 
can be thoroughly enjoyed only by well-educated Chinese scholars, as 
the references and quotations are written in Chinese, and require a 
good knowledge of the Chinese and Japanese classics to play them 
well. To boys who are eager to become proficient in Chinese, it oft- 
en acts as an incentive to be told that they will enjoy these games 
after certain attainments in scholarship have been made. Having 
made these attainments, they play the game frequently, especially dur- 
ing vacation, to impress on their minds what they have already learn- 
ed. The same benefit to the memory accrues from the Iroha and Hi- 
akunin Isshiu Garuta. 

Two other games are played which may be said to have an educa- 
tional value. They are the Chiye no Ita and the Chiye no Wa, or 
the "Wisdom Boards" and the "Ring of Wisdom." The former 
consists of a number of flat, thin pieces of wood, cut in many geomet- 
rical shapes. Certain possible figures are printed on paper as models, 
and the boy tries to form them out of the pieces given him. In some 
cases, much time and thinking are required to form the figure. The 
Chiye no Wa is a ring-puzzle, made of rings of bamboo or iron on a 



458 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 






bar. Boys having a talent for mathematics, or those who have a nat 
ural capacity to distinguish size and form, succeed very well at these 
games, and enjoy them. The game of check- 
ers is played on a raised stand or table, about 
six inches in height. The number of go, or 
checkers, including black and white, is three 
hundred and sixty. In the Sho-gi, or game 
of chess, the pieces number forty in all. Back- 
gammon is also a favorite play, and there are 
several forms of it. About the time of the 
old New-year's, when the winds of February 
and March are favorable to the sport, kites 
are flown ; and there are few sports in which 
Japanese boys, from the infant on the back to 
the full-grown and the over-grown boy, take 
more delight. I have never observed, how- 
ever, as foreign books so often tell us, old 
men flying kites, and boys merely looking on. 
The Japanese kites are made of tough paper 
pasted on a frame of bamboo sticks, and are 
usually of a rectangular shape. Some of 
them, however, are made to represent children 
or men, several kinds of birds and animals, 
fans, etc. On the rectangular kites are pict- 
ures of ancient heroes or beautiful women, 
dragons, horses, monsters of various kinds, or 
huge Chinese characters. Among the faces 
most frequently seen on these kites are those 
of Yoshitsune, Kintaro, Yoritomo, Benke, 
Daruma, Tomoye, and Hangaku. Some of 
the kites are six feet square. Many of them 
have a thin tense ribbon of whalebone at the 
top of the kite, which vibrates in the wind, 
making a loud, humming noise. The boys 
frequently name their kites G-enji or Heike, 
and each contestant endeavors to destroy that 
of his rival. For this purpose, the string, for 
ten or twenty feet near the kite end, is first 
covered with glue, and then dipped into 
pounded glass, by which the string becomes 



t&& 



CHILDREN'S GAMES AND SPORTS. 



459 




covered with tiny blades, each able to cut quickly and deeply. By 
getting the kite in proper position, and suddenly sawing the string 
of his antagonist, the severed kite falls, to be 
reclaimed by the victor. 

The Japanese tops are of several kinds; 
some are made of univalve shells, filled with 
wax. Those intended for contests are made 
of hard wood, and are iron-clad by having a 
heavy iron ring round as a sort of tire. The 
boys wind and throw them in a manner some- 
what different from ours. The object of the 
player is to damage his adversary's top, or to 
make it cease spinning. The whipping-top is 
also known and used. Besides the athletic 
sports of leaping, running, wrestling, slinging, 
the Japanese boys play at blind-man's-buff, hid- 
ing-whoop, and with stilts, pop-guns, and blow- 
guns. On stilts they play various games and 
run races. 

In the Northern and Western coast prov- 
inces, where the snow falls to the depth of 
many feet and remains long on the ground, it 
forms the material of the children's playthings 
and the theatre of many of their sports. Be- 
sides sliding on the ice, coasting with sleds, 
building snow-forts, and fighting mimic battles 
with snow-balls, they make many kinds of im- 
ages and imitations of what they see and know. 
In America the boy's snow-man is a Paddy 
with a damaged hat, clay pipe in mouth, and 
the shillalah in his hand. In Japan the snow- 
man is an image of Daruma. Daruma was one 
of the followers of Shaka (Buddha) who, by 
long meditation in a squatting position, lost his 
legs from paralysis and sheer decay. The im- 
ages of Daruma are found by the hundreds in 
toy -shops, as tobacconists' signs and as the 
snow-men of the boys. Occasionally the figure 
of Geiho, the sage with a forehead and skull so 
high that a ladder was required to reach his 




460 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

pate, or huge cats and the peculiar-shaped dogs seen in the toy-shops, 
take the place of Daruma. 

Many of the amusements of the children indoors are mere imita- 
tions of the serious affairs of adult life. Boys who have been to the 
theatre come home to imitate the celebrated actors, and to extempo- 
rize mimic theatricals for themselves. Feigned sickness and " playing 
the doctor," imitating with ludicrous exactness the pomp and solem- 
nity of the real man of pills and powders, and the misery of the pa- 
tient, are the diversions of very young children. Dinners, tea-parties, 
and even weddings and funerals, are imitated in Japanese children's 
plays. 

Among the ghostly games intended to test the courage of, or per- 
haps to frighten, children, are two plays called respectively " Hiyaku 
Monogatari " and " Kon-dameshi," or the " One Hundred Stories" and 
"Soul -examination." In the former play a company of boys and 
girls assemble round the hibachi, while they, or an adult, an aged per- 
son or a servant, usually relate ghost - stories, or tales calculated to 
straighten the hair and make the blood crawl. In a distant dark 
room, a lamp (the usual dish of oil), with a wick of one hundred 
strands or piths, is set. At the conclusion of each story, the children 
in turn must go to the dark room and remove a strand of the wick. 
As the lamp burns down low, the room becomes gloomy and dark, and 
the last boy, it is said, always sees a demon, a huge face, or something 
terrible. In the " Kon-dameshi " or " Soul-examination," a number of 
boys, during the day plant some flags in different parts of a grave- 
yard, under a lonely tree, or by a haunted hill - side. At night, they 
meet together, and tell stories about ghosts, goblins, devils, etc. ; and 
at the conclusion of each tale, when the imagination is wrought up, 
the hair begins to rise and the marrow to curdle, the boys, one at a 
time, must go out in the dark and bring back the flags, until all are 
brought in. 

On the third day of the third month is held the " Hina matsuri." 
This is the day especially devoted to the girls, and to them it is the 
greatest day in the year. It has been called, in some foreign works 
on Japan, the " Feast of Dolls." Several days before the matsuri, the 
shops are gay with the images bought for this occasion, and which 
are on sale only at this time of year. Every respectable family has 
a number of these splendidly dressed images, which are from four 
inches to a foot in height, and which accumulate from generation to 
generation. When a daughter is born in the house during the prevl 



CHILDREN'S GAMES AND SPORTS. 463 

ous year, a pair of hina, or images, are purchased for the little girl, 
which she plays with until grown up. When she is married, her hina 
are taken with her to her husband's house, and she gives them to her 
children, adding to the stock as her family increases. The images 
are made of wood or enameled clay. They represent the mikado and 
his wife ; the Kioto nobles, their wives and daughters, the court min- 
strels, and various personages in Japanese mythology and history. A 
great many other toys, representing all the articles in use in a Japa- 
nese lady's chamber, the service of the eating-table, the utensils of the 
kitchen, traveling apparatus, etc., some of them very elaborate and 
costly, are also exhibited and played with on this day. The girls 
make offerings of sake and dried rice, etc., to the effigies of the em- 
peror and empress, and then spend the day with toys, mimicking the 
whole round of Japanese female life, as that of child, maiden, wife, 
mother, and grandmother. In some old Japanese families in which I 
have visited, the display of dolls and images was very large. 

The greatest day in the year for the boys is on the Fifth day of 
the Fifth month. On this day is celebrated what has been called the 
" Feast of Flags." Previous to the coming of the day, the shops dis- 
play for sale the toys and tokens proper to the occasion. These are 
all of a kind suited to young Japanese masculinity. They consist of 
effigies of heroes and warriors, generals and commanders, soldiers on 
foot and horse, the genii of strength and valor, wrestlers, etc. The 
toys represent the equipments and regalia of a daimio's procession, all 
kinds of things used in war, the contents of an arsenal, flags, stream- 
ers, banners, etc. A set of these toys is bought for every son born in 
the family. Hence, in old Japanese families, the display on the Fifth 
day of the Fifth month is extensive and brilliant. Besides the display 
indoors, on a bamboo pole erected outside is hung, by a string, to the 
top of the pole, a representation of a large fish in paper. The paper 
being hollow, the breeze easily fills out the body of the fish, which 
flaps its tail and fins in a natural manner. One may count hundreds 
of these floating in the air over the city. 

The nobori, as the paper fish is called, is intended to show that a 
son has been born during the year, or, at least, that there are sons in 
the family. The fish represented is the carp, which is able to swim 
swiftly against the current and to leap over water-falls. This act of 
the carp is a favorite subject with native artists, and is also typical of 
the young man, especially the young samurai, mounting over all diffi- 
culties to success and quiet prosperity. 



464 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 




One favorite game, which has now gone out of fashion, was that in 
which the boys formed themselves into a daimio's procession, having 
forerunners, officers, etc., and imitating, as far as 
possible, the pomp and circumstance of the old 
daimio's train. Another game which was very 
popular was called the "Genji and Heike." 
These are the names of the celebrated rival 
clans, or families, Minamoto and Taira. The 
boys of a town, district, or school ranged them- 
selves into two parties, each with flags. Those 
of the Heike were red, those of the Genji white. 
Sometimes every boy had a flag, and the object 
of the contest, which was begun at the tap of a 
drum, was to seize the flags of the enemy. The 
party securing the greatest number of flags won 
the victory. In other cases, the flags were fast- 
ened on the back of each contestant, who was 
armed with a bamboo for a sword, and who had 
fastened, on a pad over his head, a flat, round 
piece of earthenware, so that a party of them 
looked not unlike the faculty of a college. Often 
these parties of boys numbered several hundred, 
and were marshaled in squadrons, as in a battle. 
At the given signal, the battle commenced, the 
object being to break the earthen disk on the 
head of the enemy. The contest was usually 
very exciting. Whoever had his earthen disk 
demolished had to retire from the field. The 
party having the greatest number of broken 
disks, representative of cloven skulls, was de- 
clared the loser. This game has been forbidden 
by the Government as being too severe and 
cruel. Boys were often injured in it. 

There are many other games, which we simply 
mention without describing. There are three 
games played by the hands, which every observ- 
ant foreigner, long resident in Japan, must have 
seen played, as men and women seem to enjoy 
them as much as children. One is called " Ishi- 
ken," in which a stone, a pair of scissors, and a 





CHILDREN'S GAMES AND SPORTS. 465 

wrappmg-Cxoth are represented. The stone signifies the clenched fist, 
the parted fore and middle finger the scissors, and the curved forefin- 
ger and thumb the cloth. 

In the " Kitsune-ken," the fox, man, and gun are the figures. The 
gun kills the fox, but the fox deceives the man, and the gun is useless 
without the man. In the " Osama-ken," five or six boys represent the 
various grades of rank, from the peasant up to the great daimios, or 
shogun. By superior address and skill in the game, the peasant rises 
to the highest rank, or the man of highest rank is degraded. 

From the nature of the Japanese language, in which a single word 
or sound may have a great many significations, riddles and puns are 
of extraordinary frequency. I do not know of any published collec- 
tions of riddles, but every Japanese boy has a good stock of them on 
hand. There are few Japanese works of light, perhaps of serious, lit- 
erature in which puns do not continually recur. The popular songs 
and poems are largely plays on words. There are also several puz- 
zles played with sticks, founded upon the shape of certain Chinese 
characters. As for the short and simple story-books, song -books, 
nursery-rhymes, lullabys, and what, for want of a better name, may be 
styled Mother Goose literature, they are as plentiful as with us ; but 
they have a very strongly characteristic Japanese flavor, both in style 
and matter. In the games, so familiar to us, of " Pussy wants a Cor- 
ner" and "Prisoner's Base," the oni, or devil, takes the place of Puss 
or the officer. 

I have not mentioned all the games and sports of Japanese chil- 
dren, but enough has been said to show their usual character. In 
general, they seem to be natural, sensible, and in every sense benefi- 
cial. Their immediate or remote effect, next to that of amusement, 
is either educational or hygienic. Some teach history, some geogra- 
phy, some excellent sentiments or good language, or inculcate reverence 
and obedience to the elder brother or sister, to parents or to the em- 
peror, or stimulate the manly virtues of courage and contempt for 
pain. The study of the subject leads one to respect more highly, 
rather than otherwise, the Japanese people for being such affectionate 
fathers and mothers, and for having such natural and docile children. 
The character of the children's plays and their encouragement by the 
parents have, I think, much to do with that frankness, affection, and 
obedience on the part of the children, and that kindness and sym- 
pathy on that of the parents, which are so noticeable in Japan, and 
which form one of the good points of Japanese life and character. 



466 THE MIKADO' H EMPIRE. 



XL 

HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 

Household, as distinct from religious, superstitions may be defined 
as beliefs having no real foundation of fact and a narrower range of in- 
fluences. They act as a sort of moral police, whose rewards and pun- 
ishments are confined entirely to this life. Religious superstitions af- 
fect all mankind alike ; those of the household may be said to influ- 
ence mainly women and children, and to have no connection with re- 
ligion or the priests. Screened from criticism, humble in their sphere, 
they linger in the household longer than religious superstitions. Ev- 
ery nation has them ; and according to the degree of intelligence pos- 
sessed by a people will they be numerous or rare. In most cases they 
are harmless, while many have a real educational value for children 
and simple-minded people, who can not, by their own intelligence, 
foresee the remote good or bad results of their conduct. These per- 
sons may be influenced by the fear of punishment or the hopes of re- 
ward, embodied in a warning told with gravity, and enforced by the 
apparently solemn belief of him who tells it. As children outgrow 
them, or as they wear out, those who once observed will laugh at, and 
yet often continue them through the force of habit. Others will be 
retained on account of the pleasure connected with the belief. Oth- 
ers, again, become so intrenched in household customs that religion, 
reason, argument, fashion, assault them in vain. Thus, among many of 
us, the upsetting of a salt-cellar, the dropping of a needle that stands 
upright, the falling of a looking-glass, the accidental gathering of thir- 
teen people around the dinner-table, will give rise to certain thoughts 
resulting in a course of action or flutter of fear that can not be ration- 
ally explained. I once heard of a Swedish servant-girl who would not 
brush away the cobwebs in her mistress's house, lest she should sweep 
away her beaux also. As in our own language, the fancies, poetry, or 
fears of our ancestors are embalmed in the names of flowers, in words 
and names, so the student of the picture-words of the Japanese Ian- 



HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 467 

guage finds in them fragments of poems, quaint conceits, or hideous 
beliefs. 

So far as I could judge, in Japan, the majority of the lower classes 
implicitly believe the household superstitions current among them; 
and though, in the upper strata of society, there were many men who 
laughed at them, the power of custom enslaved the women and chil- 
dren. The greater number of those I give below are believed by the 
larger portion of the people, particularly in the country. In this, as 
in others of a more serious nature, the belief varies with the mood 
and circumstances of the individual or people. Many of them I have 
seen or heard referred to in conversation or in my reading ; others I 
have had noted down for me by young men from various parts of Ja- 
pan. I find that a few of them are peculiar, or local, to one province ; 
but most of them form the stock of beliefs common to mankind or 
the Japanese people. From hundreds, I give a few. Some have an 
evident moral or educational purpose — to inculcate lessons of tidiness, 
benevolence, and to form good habits of cleanliness, nicety in house- 
keeping, etc. Some are weather prognostics, or warnings intended to 
guard against fire or other calamities. 

They never sweep the rooms of a house immediately after one of 
the inmates has set out upon a journey, or to be absent for a time. 
This would sweep out all the luck with him. 

At a marriage ceremony, neither bride nor bridegroom wears any 
clothing of a purple color, lest their marriage -tie be soon loosed, as 
purple is the color most liable to fade. It would be as if a couple 
from New Jersey would go to Indiana to spend their honey-moon. 

If, while a person is very sick, the cup of medicine is upset by acci- 
dent, they say it is a sure sign of his recovery. This looks as though 
the Japanese had faith in the dictum, " Throw physic to the dogs." 

There are some curious ideas in regard to cutting the finger-nails. 
The nails must not be trimmed just previous to going on a journey, 
lest disgrace should fall upon the person at the place of his destina- 
tion. Upon no account will an ordinary Japanese cut his nails at 
night, lest cat's nails grow out from them. Children who cast the 
clippings of their nails in the brazier or fire are in danger of calamity. 
If, while any one is cutting the nails, a piece springs into the fire, he 
will die soon. By burning some salt in the fire, however, the danger 
is avoided. 

It seems that the bore is not unknown in Japan, and the Japanese 
are pestered with visitors who sit their welcome out, and drive their 



468 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

hosts into a frenzy of eagerness to get rid of them. The following is 
said to be a sure recipe to secure good riddance : Go to the kitchen, 
turn the broom upside down, put a towel over it, and fan it lustily. 
The tedious visitor will soon depart. Or, burn a moxa (Japanese, mo- 
gusa) on the back of his clogs. A Japanese, in entering a house, al- 
ways leaves his clogs or sandals outside the door. The American 
host, bored by tedious callers, is respectfully invited to try his method 
of hastening departures. 

Japanese papas, who find, as other fathers do, how much it costs to 
raise a large family, will not let an infant, or even a young child, look 
in a mirror (and thus see a child exactly like itself, making apparent 
twins) ; for if he does, the anxious parent supposes the child, when 
grown up and married, will have twins. 

When small-pox prevails in a neighborhood, and parents do not wish 
their children attacked by it, they write a notice on the front of their 
houses that their children are absent. This is said to keep out the disease. 

Many have reference to death or criminals. A Japanese corpse 
is always placed with its head to the north and feet to the south. 
Hence, a living Japanese will never sleep in that position. I have 
often noticed, in the sleeping-rooms of private houses, where I was a 
guest, and in many of the hotels, a diagram of the cardinal points of 
the compass printed on paper, and pasted on the ceiling of the room, 
for the benefit of timid sleepers. Some Japanese, in traveling, carry a 
compass, to avoid this really natural and scientific position in sleep. 
I have often surprised people, especially students, in Japan, by telling 
them that to lie with the head to the north was the true position in 
harmony with the electric currents in the atmosphere, and that a 
Frenchman, noted for his longevity, ascribed his vigorous old age 
mainly to the fact that he slept in a line drawn from pole to pole. 
I used to shock them by invariably sleeping in that position myself. 

The plaintive howling of a dog in the night-time portends a death 
in some family in the vicinity of the animal. 

The wooden clogs of the Japanese are fastened on the foot by a 
single thong passing between the largest and next largest toe. The 
stocking, or sock, is a " foot-glove," with a separate compartment for 
the " thumb of the foot," and another mitten-like one for the " foot- 
fingers." This thong, divided into two, passes over the foot and is 
fastened at the sides. If, in walking, the string breaks in front, it is 
the sign of some misfortune to the person's enemies ; if on the back 
part, the wearer himself will experience some calamity. 



HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 469 

When, by reason of good fortune or a lucky course of events, there 
is great joy in a family, it is customary to make kowameshi, or red 
rice, and give an entertainment to friends and neighbors. The rice is 
colored by boiling red beans with it. If, for any cause, the color is 
not a fine red, it is a bad omen for the family, and their joy is turned 
to grief. 

"When a person loses a tooth, either artificially at the hands of the 
dentist (Japanese, " tooth-carpenter "), or by forceps, or by accident, in 
order that another may grow in the empty socket, the tooth, if from 
the upper jaw, is buried under the foundation of the house ; if from 
the lower jaw, it is thrown up on the roof of a house. 

Many are founded upon puns, or word- resemblances, making the 
deepest impression upon the native mind. There are many instances 
in Japanese history in which discreet servants or wise men gave a hap- 
py turn to some word of sinister omen, and warded off harm. 

At New-year's-day, paterfamilias does not like any one to utter the 
sound shi (death), or any word containing it. This is a difficult mat- 
ter in a household, since the syllable shi has over a dozen different 
meanings, and occurs in several hundred Japanese words, some of them 
very common. Thus, let us suppose a family of husband, wife, child, 
and servant, numbering four (shi). A visitor calls, and happens to use 
the words Shiba (a city district in Tokio), shi (teacher, poem, four, to 
do, etc.). The host, at first merely angry with the visitor who so forci- 
bly uses the sinister words, is incensed when the latter happens to re- 
mark that his host's household consists of four (shi), and wishes him 
gone. Moodily reflecting on his visitor's remark, he resolves to dis- 
miss his servant, and so make his household three. But the shrewd 
servant, named Fuku, remonstrates with his master for sending away 
fuTcu (blessing, luck) from his house. The master is soothed, and 
keeps his " boy." 

Many Japanese worship the god Kampira for no other reason than 
that the first syllable of his name means gold. 

If a woman steps over an egg-shell, she will go mad ; if over a ra- 
zor, it will become dull ; if over a whetstone, it will be broken. If a 
man should set his hair on fire, he will go mad. A girl who bites her 
finger-nails will, when married, bring forth children with great diffi- 
culty. Children are told that if they tell a lie, an oni, or an imp, called 
the tengu, will pull out their tongues. Many a Japanese urchin has 
spoken the truth in fear of the oni supposed to be standing by, ready 
to run away with his tongue. No such watchman seems to be set be- 



470 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

fore the unruly member of the scolding wife. Of these " edge-tools 
that grow sharper by constant use " there is a goodly number in Ja- 
pan. When husband and wife are quarreling, a devil is believed to 
stand between them, encouraging them to go on from bad to worse. 

Salt is regarded as something so mysterious in its preservative pow- 
er, that it is the subject of several household superstitions. A house- 
wife will not, on any account, buy salt at night. When obtained in 
the day-time, a portion of it must first be thrown in the fire to ward 
off all dangers, and especially to prevent quarreling in the family. It 
is also used to scatter around the threshold and in the house after a 
funeral, for purificatory purposes. 

Many are the imaginary ways of getting rich, so numerous in every 
land. One of the most important articles of Japanese clothing, in 
both male and female, is the obi, or girdle. If, in dressing, the obi 
gets entangled, and forms a knot or knob, the wearer never unties it 
himself, but proposes to some one else to do it for him, promising 
him a great sum, as the wearer is sure to be rich. There is usually a 
great deal of laughing when this " superstition " is observed. 

All Japanese seem to have a desire to attain full stature. Stunted 
growth is a great grief to a man, and every thing of ill-omen calculated 
to restrain growth must be avoided. If a boy rests a gun on the top 
of his head, he will grow no taller. Children must not carry any kind 
of basket on their heads, nor must they ever measure their own height. 
Such a sight as men or women carrying burdens on their heads, so 
common in Europe, is rarely seen in Japan. 

If a man, while going to fish, meets a bonze on the road, he will 
catch no fish, as the [strict] bonzes eat no fish. 

A person who, when eating, bites his tongue, believes that somebody 
begrudges him his food. 

It often happens that boys and girls like to eat the charred portions 
of rice that sometimes remain in the pot when the rice has been burn- 
ed. Young unmarried people who persist in this are warned that they 
will marry persons whose faces are pock-marked. 

Many people, especially epicures, have an idea that by eating the 
first fruits, fish, grain, or vegetables of the season, they will live sev- 
enty-five days longer than they otherwise would. 

It is an exceedingly evil omen to break the chopsticks while eating. 
Children are told that if they strike any thing with their chopsticks 
while at their meals, they will be struck dumb. 

People who drink tea or water out of the spout of the vessel, in- 



HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 47 1 

stead of out of a cup, are told that they will have a child with a 
mouth shaped like the spout of the vessel. This terror is kept fresh 
before the mind by masks and pictures of human beings with spout- 
shaped mouths. 

In Japan the dwellings are universally built of wood, and conflagra- 
tions very frequently destroy whole towns or villages in a single day 
or night, leaving nothing but ashes. Hence it is of the greatest im- 
portance to provide against the ever-ready enemy, and every " sign " is 
carefully heeded. The following prognostics are deemed unfailing: 
When the cocks crow loudly in the evening; when a dog climbs up 
on the roof of a house or building of any kind. If a weasel cries out 
once, fire will break out : to avert it, a person must pour out three 
dipperfuls of water, holding the dipper in the left hand. A peculiar 
kind of grass, called hinode (sunrise), grows on many Japanese houses : 
this must not be pulled up, otherwise the house will take fire. 

In regard to visitors, they believe the following: In pouring tea 
from the tea-pot, it sometimes happens that the stem of a leaf comes 
out with the tea, and stands momentarily upright. From whatever 
direction the stem finally falls, they expect a visitor. If a bird, in fly- 
ing, casts its shadow on the partition or window (which is of paper, 
and translucent), a visitor will surely call soon. A person, when ab- 
stracted or in trouble, while eating, will often pour out his tea from 
the back of the tea-pot, instead of through the spout. In such case 
it is a sure sign of the near visit of a priest to the house. 

Many are intended to teach the youth to imitate great, good, or 
wise men. 

If the rim (fuchi, also meaning " salary ") of a cup is broken {hana- 
reru, also meaning is " lost ") in presence of an official while he is eat- 
ing, he will be unhappy, for he will understand it to mean that he 
will lose his office or salary. 

Even among the educated samurai, with whom the maintaining of 
the family name and dignity is all-important, there are many danger- 
ous seasons for travelers, and the number of lucky and unlucky days 
is too numerous to be fully noted here. 

Many people of the lower classes would not wash their head or hair 
on "the day of the horse," so named after one of the signs of the 
zodiac, lest their hair become red. Any other capillary color than a 
deep black is an abomination to a Japanese. 

During an eclipse of the sun or moon, people carefully cover the 
wells, as they suppose that poison falls from the sky during the period 



472 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

of the obscuration. Seeds will not germinate if planted on certain 
days. Many people will not build a bouse fronting to tbe north-east, 
else it will soon be destroyed : this is the quarter in which especial evil 
lurks; it is called the "Devil's Gate." Young men must not light 
their pipes at a lamp : it should be done at the coals in the brazier. If 
they persist in violating this precaution, they will not get good wives. 
Many people even now, in the rural districts, think it wrong to eat beef, 
and believe that a butcher will have a cripple among his descendants. 

When a maimed or deformed child is born, people say that its par- 
ents or ancestors committed some great sin. After 5 p.m. many peo- 
ple will not put on new clothes or sandals. There are several years of 
life called the yaku-doshi (evil years), in which a person must be very 
careful of himself and all he does. These critical years are the seventh, 
twenty-fifth, forty- second, and sixty -first in a man's, and the seventh, 
eighth, thirty-third, forty-second, and sixty-first in a woman's life. 

In Japan, as with us, each baby is the most remarkable child ever 
seen, and wondrous are the legends rehearsed concerning each one ; 
but it is a great day in a Japanese home when the baby, of his own 
accord, walks before his first birthday, and mochi (rice pastry) must 
be made to celebrate the auspicious event. 

Young girls do not like to pour tea or hot water into a cup of 
kawameshi (red rice), lest their wedding-night should be rainy. 

The common belief in Japan is that the dream is the act of the 
soul. As soon as a person falls asleep, the soul, leaving the body, 
goes out to play. If we wake any one suddenly and violently, he 
will die, because his soul, being at a distance, can not return to the 
body before he is awakened. The soul is supposed to have form and 
color, and to be a small, round, black body ; and the adventures of 
the disembodied soul, i. e., the black ball apart from its owner, form 
a standard subject in Japanese novels and imaginative literature. 

In general, dreams go by contraries. Thus, if one dreams that he was 
killed or stabbed by some one with a sword, the dream is considered 
a very lucky one. If a person dreams of finding money, he will soon 
lose some. If he dreams of loss, he will gain. If one dreams of Fuji 
no yama, he will receive promotion to high rank, or will win great 
prosperity. If on the night of the second day of the First month one 
dreams of the takara-bune (treasure-ship), he shall become a rich man. 
In order to dream this happy dream, people often put beneath their 
pillows a picture of it, which operates like bridal-cake. 

All these beliefs and hundreds of others that I noted in Japan are 



HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 473 

comparatively harmless. The Japanese fancy does not seem to have 
reached that depth of disease, to have suffered with that delirium tre- 
mens of superstition, such as inthralls and paralyzes the Chinese, and 
prevents all modern progress. Feng Shuey is not a national curse in 
Japan, as it is in China ; and whereas, in the latter country, telegraph 
poles and wires are torn down because they cast a shadow over the 
ancestral tombs, and railroads can not be built because they traverse or 
approach grave-yards, in Japan both these civilizers are popular. 

In a few years many of the household superstitions I have enumer- 
ated will be, in the cities of Japan, as curious to the Japanese as they 
are to us. Among these are the following, with which this long 
chapter may be closed : 

All over the country, in town or city, are trees specially dedicated 
to the kami, or gods. Those around shrines also are deemed sacred. 
They are often marked by a circlet of twisted rice-straw. Several 
times in the recent history of the country have serious insurrections 
broken out among the peasantry, because the local authorities decided 
to cut down certain trees held in worshipful reverence by the people, 
and believed to be the abode of the tutelary deities. Nature, in all 
her forms, is as animate and populous to the Japanese imagination as 
were the mountain stream and sea to the child and peasant of an- 
cient Greece. Many a tale is told of trees shedding blood when hew- 
ed down, and of sacrilegious axe-men smitten in death for their temer- 
ity. In popular fiction — the mirror as well as nurse of popular fancy 
— a whole grove of trees sometimes appears to the belated or guilty 
traveler as a whispering council of bearded and long-armed old men. 

In Fukui and Tokio, and in my numerous journeyings, many trees 
were pointed out to me as having good or evil reputation. Some 
were the abodes of good spirits, some of ghosts that troubled travel- 
ers and the neighborhood; while some had the strange power of at- 
tracting men to hang themselves on their branches. This power of 
fascinating men to suicide is developed in the tree after the first vic- 
tim has done so voluntarily. One of these, standing in a lonely part 
of the road skirting the widest of the castle moats in Fukui, was fa- 
mous for being the elect gallows for all the suicides by rope in the 
city. Another tree, near the Imperial College in Tokio, within half a 
mile of my house, bore a similar sinister reputation ; and another, on 
the south side of Shiba grove, excelled, in number of victims, any in 
that great city. 

A singular superstition, founded upon the belief that the kami will 



474 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

visit vengeance upon those who desecrate the sacred trees, or foi 
whom they are desecrated, is called the " Ushi toki mairi " — literally, 
" to go to the shrine at the hour of the ox." Let us suppose that a 
man has made love to a woman, won her affections, and then deserted 
her. In some cases, sorrow culminates in suicide ; usually, it is en- 
dured and finally overborne ; in rare cases, the injured woman becomes 
a jealous avenger, who invokes the gods to curse and annihilate the 
destroyer of her peace. To do this, she makes a rude image of straw, 
which is to represent her victim. At the hour of two o'clock in the 
morning, ushi toki (the hour of the ox), she proceeds (mairi) to the 
shrine of her patron god, usually the Uji-gami (family or local deity). 
Her feet are shod with high clogs, her limbs are lightly robed in loose 
night-dress of white, her hair is disheveled, and her eyes sparkle with 
the passion within her. Sometimes she wears a crown, made of an 
iron tripod reversed, on which burn three candles. In her left hand 
she carries the straw effigy ; in her right she grasps a hammer. On 
her bosom is suspended a mirror. She carries nails in her girdle or 
in her mouth. Reaching the sacred tree, which is encircled with a 
garland of rice-straw, before the shrine, and near the torii, she impales 
upon the tree with nails, after the manner of a Roman crucifier, the 
straw effigy of her recreant lover. While so engaged, she adjures the 
gods to save their tree, impute the guilt of desecration to the traitor, 
and visit him with their deadly vengeance. The visit is repeated 
nightly, several times in succession, until the object of her incanta- 
tions sickens and dies. At Sabae, which I visited, a town twenty-five 
miles from Fukui, before a shrine of Kampira stood a pine-tree about 
a foot thick, plentifully studded with nails, the imperishable parts of 
these emblems of vicarious vengeance. Another, and a smaller, tree 
hard by, wounded unto death by repeated stabs of the iron nails driv- 
en home by arms nerved to masculine strength, had long since with- 
ered away. It stood there, all scarred and stained by rust, and gut- 
tered into rottenness, a grim memorial of passions long since cooled 
in death, perchance of retribution long since accomplished. What 
tales of love and desertion, anguish, jealousy, and vengeance could 
each rusty cross of iron points tell, were each a tongue ! It seemed 
but another of many proofs that the passions which thrill or torment 
the human soul are as strong in Japan as in those lands whose chil- 
dren boast that to them it is given to reach the heights of highest hu- 
man joy, and to sound the depths of deepest human woe. In Japan, 
also, " Love is as strong as death ; jealousy is cruel as the grave." 



THE MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY OF JAPAN. 477 



XII. 

THE MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY OF JAPAN. 

As if to make amends for the poverty of the actual fauna in Japan, 
the number and variety of imaginary creatures in animal form are re- 
markably great. Man is not satisfied with what the heavens above 
and the waters under the earth show him. Seeing that every effect 
must have a cause, and ignorant of the revelations of modern science, 
the natural man sees in cloud, tempest, lightning, thunder, earthquake, 
and biting wind the moving spirits of the air. According to the pri- 
mal mold of the particular human mind will the bodying of these 
things unseen be lovely or hideous, sublime or trivial. Only one born 
among the triumphs of modern discovery, who lives a few years in an 
Asiatic country, can realize in its most perfect vividness the definition 
of science given by the master seer — " the art of seeing the invisible." 

The aspects of nature in Japan are such as to influence the minds 
of its mainly agricultural inhabitants to an extent but faintly realized 
by one born in the United States. In the first place, the foundations 
of the land are shaky. There can be no real estate in Japan, for one 
knows not but the whole country may be ingulfed in the waters out 
of which it once emerged. Earthquakes average over two a month, 
and a hundred in one revolution of the moon have been known. The 
national annals tell of many a town and village ingulfed, and of cities 
and proud castles leveled. Floods of rain, causing dreadful land-slides 
and inundations, are by no means rare. Even the ocean has, to the 
coast-dweller, an added terror. Not only do the wind and tempest 
arise to wreck and drown, but the tidal wave is ever a possible visitor. 
Once or twice a year the typhoons, sometimes the most dreadful in the 
dreadful catalogue of destructive agencies, must be looked for. Two- 
thirds of the entire surface of the empire is covered with mount- 
ains — not always superb models of form like Fuji, but often jagged 
peaks and cloven crests, among which are grim precipices, frightful 
gulches, and gloomy defiles. With no religion but that of paganism 
and fetichism, armed without by no weapons of science, strengthened 

31 



478 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

within by no knowledge of the Creator-father, the Japanese peasant is 
appalled at his own insignificance in the midst of the sublime myste- 
ries and immensities of nature. The creatures of his own imagination, 
by which he explains the phenomena of nature and soothes his terrors, 
though seeming frightful to us, are necessities to him, since the awful 
suspense of uncertainty and ignorance is to him more terrible than the 
creatures whose existence he imagines. Though modern science will 
confer an ineffable good upon Japan by enlightening the darkened in- 
tellect of its inhabitants, yet the continual liability to the recurrence of 
destructive natural phenomena will long retard the march of mind, and 
keep alive superstitions that now block like bowlders the path of civ- 
ilization. 

Chief among ideal creatures in Japan is the dragon. The word 
dragon stands for a genus of which there are several species and va- 
rieties. To describe them in full, and to recount minutely the ideas 
held by the Japanese rustics concerning them, would be to compile an 
octavo work on dragonology. The merest tyro in Japanese art — in- 
deed, any one who has seen the cheap curios of the country — must 
have been impressed with the great number of these colossal wrigglers 
on every thing Japanese. In the country itself, the monster is well- 
nigh omnipresent. In the carvings on tombs, temples, dwellings, and 
shops — on the Government documents — printed on the old and the 
new paper money, and stamped on the new coins — in pictures and 
books, on musical instruments, in high-relief on bronzes, and cut in 
stone, metal, and wood — the dragon (tatsu) everywhere " swinges the 
scaly horror of his folded tail," whisks his long mustaches, or glares 
with his terrible eyes. The dragon is the only animal in modern Ja- 
pan that wears hairy ornaments on the upper lip. 

I shall attempt no detailed description of the Japanese dragon, 
presuming that most foreign readers are already familiar with its ap- 
pearance on works of art. The creature looks like a winged crocodile, 
except as to the snout, which is tufted with hair, and the claws, which 
are very sharp. The celebrated Japanese author, Bakin, in his master- 
piece of Hahkenden (" The Eight Dog Children "), describes the mon- 
ster with dogmatic accuracy. He says : " The dragon is a creature of 
a very superior order of being. It has a deer's horns, a horse's head, 
eyes like those of a devil, a neck like that of a snake, a belly like that 
of a red worm, scales like those of a fish, claws like a hawk's, paws like 
a tiger's, and ears like a cow's. In the spring, the dragon lives in heav- 
en ; in the autumn, in the water ; in the summer, it travels in the 



THE MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY OF JAPAN. 



4*79 



clouds and takes its pleasure ; in winter, it lives in the earth dormant. 
It always dwells alone, and never in herds. There are many kinds of 
dragons, such as the violet, the yellow, the green, the red, the white, the 
black, and the flying dragon. Some are scaly, some horned, some with- 
out horns. When the white dragon breathes, the breath of its lungs 
goes into the earth and turns to gold. When the violet dragon spits, 
the spittle becomes balls of pure crystal, of which gems and caskets 
are made. One kind of dragon has nine colors on its body, and an- 
other can see every thing within a hundred ri ; another has immense 
treasures of every sort ; another delights to kill human beings. The 
water dragon causes floods of rain ; when it is sick, the rain has a 




The Rain Dragon. (From a Japanese drawing, by Kano.) 

fishy smell. The fire dragon is only seven feet long, but its body is 
of flame. The dragons are all very lustful, and approach beasts of ev- 
ery sort. The fruit of a union of one of these monsters with a cow 
is the kirin ; with a swine, an elephant ; and with a mare, a steed of 
the finest breed. The female dragon produces at every parturition 
nine young. The first young dragon sings, and likes all harmonious 
sounds, hence the tops of Japanese bells are cast in the form of this 



480 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

dragon; the second delights in the sounds of musical instruments, 
hence the koto, or horizontal harp, and suzumi, a girl's drum, struck by 
the fingers, are ornamented with the figure of this dragon ; the third 
is fond of drinking, and likes all stimulating liquors, therefore goblets 
and drinking-cups are adorned with representations of this creature ; 
the fourth likes steep and dangerous places, hence gables, towers, and 
projecting beams of temples and pagodas have carved images of this 
dragon upon them ; the fifth is a great destroyer of living things, fond 
of killing and bloodshed, therefore swords are decorated with golden 
figures of this dragon ; the sixth loves learning and delights in litera- 
ture, hence on the covers and title-pages of books and literary works 
are pictures of this creature ; the seventh is renowned for its power of 
hearing ; the eighth enjoys sitting, hence the easy-chairs are carved in 
its images ; the ninth loves to bear weight, therefore the feet of tables 
and of hibachi are shaped like this creature's feet. As the dragon is 
the most powerful animal in existence, so the garments of the emperor 
or mikado are called the ' dragon robes,' his face the ' dragon counte- 
nance,' his body the ' dragon body,' the ruffling of the ' dragon scales ' 
his displeasure, and his anger the ' dragon wrath.' " 

Whence arose the idea of the dragon ? Was the pterodactyl known 
to the early peoples of the East ? Did the geologic fish-lizard wander 
at night, with teeth unpicked and uncleansed of phosphorescent frag- 
ments of his fish-diet, and thus really breathe out fire, as the artists 
picture him ? 

The kirin, referred to above, is an animal having the head of a drag- 
on, the body of a deer, and the legs and feet of a horse, with tail and 
streaming hah or wings peculiar to itself, though native poets never 
bestride it, nor is it any relative of Pegasus. On its forehead is a 
single horn. It is found carved on the wood-work of the tombs of 
the shoguns and other defunct worthies in Japan. It is said that the 
kirin appears on the earth once in a thousand years, or only when 
some transcendently great man or sage, like Confucius, is born. It 
never treads on a live insect, nor eats growing grass. The kirin is of 
less importance in Japan than in China, whence its origin, like that of 
so much of the mythology and strange notions current in Japan. 

There is another creature whose visits are rarer than those of an- 
gels, since it appears on the earth only at millennial intervals, or at the 
birth of some very great man. This fabulous bird, also of Chinese or- 
igin, is called the howo, or phenix. The tombs of the shdguns at Shi- 
ba and Nikko have most elaborate representations of the howo, and 



THE MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY OF JAPAN. 481 

the new and old paper currency of the country likewise bears its im- 
age. It seems to be a combination of the pheasant and peacock. A 
Chinese dictionary thus describes the fowl : " The phenix is of the 
essence of water; it was born in the vermilion cave; it roosts not 
but upon the most beautiful tree (Wu-tung, Eloeococcus oleifera) ; it 
eats not but of the seeds of the bamboo ; it drinks not but of the 
sweetest spring ; its body is adorned with the Five Colors ; its song 
contains the Five Notes ; as it walks, it looks around ; as it flies, the 
hosts of birds follow it." It has the head of a fowl, the crest of a 
swallow, the neck of a snake, the tail of a fish. Virtue, obedience, 
justice, fidelity, and benevolence are symbolized in the decorations on 
its head, wings, body, and breast. 

Some of the ultra-conservatives, who cherish the old superstitions, 
and who look with distrust and contempt on the present regime in 
Japan, await the coming of the kirin and the howo with eagerness,*as 
the annunciation of the birth of the great leader, who is, by his pre- 
eminent abilities, to dwarf into insignificance all the pigmy politicians 
of the present day. This superstition in Japan takes the place of 
those long in vogue in Europe, where it was supposed that such lead- 
ers as Charlemagne, Alfred, and Barbarossa were sleeping, but would 
come forth again at the propitious moment, to lead, conquer, and 
reign. 

The kappa is a creature with the body and head of a monkey 
and the claws of a tortoise. There are various representations of it, 
gravely figured in native works on reptilology. In some of these, the 
monkey type seems to prevail ; in others, the tortoise. There is a pe- 
culiar species of tortoise in the waters of Japan, called by the natives 
support. Its shell is cartilaginous, its head triangular, and its probos- 
cis elongated and tapering. Imagine this greenish creature rising up, 
shedding its shell, and evolving into a monkey-like animal, about the 
size of a big boy, but retaining its web-footed claws, and you have the 
kappa. It is supposed to live in the water, and to seize people, espe- 
cially boys, who invade its dominions. It delights in catching well- 
favored urchins, and feasting upon choice tidbits torn out of certain 
parts of their bodies. 

The kappa, fortunately, is very fond of cucumbers, and parents hav- 
ing promising sons throw the first cucumbers of the season into the 
water it is supposed to haunt, to propitiate it and save their chil- 
dren. In Fukui, I was warned not to bathe in a certain part of the 
river, as the kappa would infallibly catch me by the feet and devour 



482 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

me ; and more than one head was shaken when it became known that 
I had defied their warnings. 

A woman was riding in a jin-riki-sha, and the coolie was coursing 
at full speed on the road at the side of the castle-moat, where the 
water is four feet deep. Suddenly, and, to the coolie, unaccountably, 
he and his vehicle were upset, and the precious freight was thrown 
into the moat. She was fished out in a condition that might have 
helped even a passing foreigner to believe in the existence of the mer- 
maid. The coolie was puzzled to account for the capsizing of his ma- 
chine, and immediately attributed it to the agency of the kappa. By 
venturing insultingly near the domain of this local Neptune, he had 
been punished by his muddy majesty. Though the woman had no 
mark of claw or teeth, she doubtless congratulated herself on her lucky 
escape from the claws of the monster. 

I have heard, on several occasions, of people in Tokio seeing a kap- 
pa in the Sumida-gawa, the river that flows by the capital. Numer- 
ous instances of harm done by it are known to the orthodox believ- 
ers, to whom these creations of diseased imagination are embodied ver- 
ities. The native newspapers occasionally announce reported cases of 
kappa mischief, using the incidents as texts to ridicule the supersti- 
tion, hoping to uproot it from the minds of the people. 

Among the many ideal creatures with which the native imagina- 
tion has populated earth and air is the kama-itachi, believed to be a 
kind of weasel, that, in the most wanton sport, or out of mere delight 
in malignity, cuts or tears the faces of people with the sickle which it 
is supposed to carry. This creature is not known to trouble any ani- 
mal except man. Every one knows that at times, in moments of ex- 
citement, cuts or scratches are received which are discovered only by 
the appearance of blood. In Japan, where the people universally wear 
clogs — often high, heavy blocks of wood, the thong of which is lia- 
ble to break — and the ground is covered with loose pebbles or sharp 
stones, falls and cuts are very frequent. The one thought, to the ex- 
clusion of every other, in an instance of this kind, is about the failing 
thong or the outslipping support. The pedestrian, picking himself 
up, with probably a malediction on the thong or the clog-maker, finds, 
on cooling off, that his face is cut. Presto ! u Kama-itachi ni kirare- 
ta " (" cut by the sickle-weasel "). The invisible brute has passed and 
cut his victim on the cheek with his blade. I have myself known 
cases where no cut appeared and no blood flowed, yet the stumbler 
who broke his clog-string fell to cursing the kama-itachi for tripping 



THE MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY OF JAPAN. 483 

him. This creature is also said to be present in whirlwinds. It is a 
most convenient scape-goat for people who go out at night when they 
ought to stay at home, and who get cuts and scratches which they do 
not care to account for truly. A case recently occurred in the port of 
Niigata, which illustrates both the mythical and scape-goat phases of 
this belief. A European doctor was called to see a native woman, 
who was said to be suffering from the kama-itachi. The patient was 
found lying down, with a severe clean cut, such as might have been 
caused by falling on some sharp substance ; but to all questions as to 
how she got the wound, the only answer was, " Kama-itachi." By 




Futen, the Wind-imp. (From a Japanese drawing.) 

dint of questioning the servants, it appeared that there was more in 
the facts than had met the doctor's ears. It seemed that, during the 
night, she had risen and passed out of the house, and had been absent 
for a considerable time. TVhether there was a "love-lorn swain in 
lady's bower" awaiting her coming was not developed during the 
pumping process she was subjected to by the student of imaginary 
zoology, who was the catechist of the occasion. Japanese gardens are 
nearly always paved with smooth stones, which often have sharp edges. 
These might easily have inflicted just such a wound in case of a fall on 



484 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



their slippery surfaces, especially if the fall occurred in the darkness. 
For reasons of her own, most probably, the blame was laid on the ka« 
ma-itachi. 

The wind and the thunder, to a Japanese child or peasant, are some- 
thing more than moving air and sound. Before many of the temples 
are figures, often colossal, of the gods of the wind and of thunder. 
The former is represented as a monstrous semi-feline creature, holding 
an enormous bag of compressed air over his shoulders. When he 
loosens his hold on one of the closed ends, the breezes blow ; when he 
partly opens it, a gale arises ; when he removes his hand, the tornado 
devastates the earth. At times, this imp, as the fancy seizes him, sal- 




Kaiden, the Thunder-drummer. (From a native drawing.) 

lies forth from his lair away in the mountains, and chases terrified 
travelers or grass-cutters ; often scratching their faces dreadfully with 
his claws. Sometimes, invisibly passing, he bites or tears the counte- 
nance of the traveler, who, bearing the brunt of the blast, feels the 
wound, but sees not the assailant. There are not wanting pictures 
and images representing the deliverance of pious men, who, trusting in 
the goddess Kuanon, have, by dint of nimbleness and prayer, escaped, 
as by a hair-breadth, the steel-like claws of Futen, the wind-imp. 
The "thunder-god" is represented as a creature that looks like a 



THE MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY OF JAPAN. 485 

human dwarf changed into a species of erect cat. His name is Raiden. 
He carries over his head a semicircle of five drums joined together. 
By striking or rattling these drums, he makes thunder. With us it is 
not the thunder that strikes ; but in Japanese popular language, the 
thunder not only strikes, but kills. According to Russian supersti- 
tion, thunder kills with a stone arrow. Among the Japanese, when 
the lightning strikes, it is the thunder-cat that leaps upon, or is hurled 
at, the victim. Often it escapes out of the cloud to the ground. A 
young student from Hiuga told me that in his native district the paw 
of a thunder-imp that fell out of the clouds several centuries ago is 
still kept, and triumphantly exhibited, as a silencing proof to all skep- 
tics of the actual occurrence of the event asserted to have taken place. 
Tradition relates that a sudden storm once arose in the district, and 
that, during a terrific peal of thunder, this monster leaped, in a flash of 
lightning, down a well. Instead, however, of falling directly into the 
water, its hind paw happened to get caught in a crack of the split 
timber of the wooden well-curb, and was torn off by the momentum 
of the descent. This paw was found after the storm, fresh and 
bloody, and was immediately taken to be preserved for the edification 
of future generations. It is not known whether any of the neighbors 
missed a cat at that time ; but any suggestions of such an irreverent 
theory of explanation would doubtless be met by the keepers of the 
relic with lofty scorn and pitying contempt. 

One of the miracle figures at Asakiisa, in Tokio, until 1874 repre- 
sents a noble of the mikado's court, with his hand on the throat, 
and his knee planted on the back of the thunder-imp that lies sprawl- 
ing, and apparently howling, on the ground, with his drums broken 
and scattered about him. One hairy paw is stretched out impotently 
before him, and with the other he vainly tries to make his conqueror 
release his hold. The expression of the starting eyes of the beast 
shows that the vise-like grip of the man is choking him ; his nostrils 
gape, and from his mouth extrude sharp teeth. His short ears are 
cocked, and his body is hairy, like a cat. On each of his paws are 
several triangular bayonet - shaped claws. The human figure is life- 
size ; the thunder-cat is about three feet from crown to claws. The 
creature does not appear to have any tail. This, however, is no 
curtailment of his feline dignity, since most of the Japanese pussies 
have caudal appendages of but one or two inches in length, and many 
are as tailless as the Darwinian descendants of the monkey. This 
tableau is explained as follows by the guide-book to the exhibition: 



486 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

" In the province of Yamato, in the reign of Yuriyaku Tenno, when 
he was leaving his palace, a sudden thunder-storm of terrific violence 
arose. The mikado ordered Sugaru, his courtier, to catch the thun- 
der-imp. Sugaru spurred his horse forward and drove the thunder- 
god to the side of Mount Abe, where the creature, leaping high into 
the air, defied the attempts of his pursuer. Sugaru, gazing at the 
sky, cried out to the imp, ' Obey the emperor !' But the roll of the 
thunder ceased not for a moment. Then Sugaru, turning his face to 
the temple, prayed earnestly to Kuanon, and cried out, 'Dost thou 
not hear and protect thy faithful ones when they cry unto thee V Im- 
mediately, as the prayer ended, a splendor of radiant light shot out 
from the temple, and the thunder -imp fell to the earth. Sugaru 
seized him in a trice, bound him securely, and took him to the em- 
peror's palace. Then all men called him the ' god-catcher.' " 

Decidedly, the animal of greatest dimensions in the mythical 
menagerie or aquarium of Japan is the jishin uwo, or "earthquake 
fish." Concerning the whereabouts and haunts of this monster, there 
are two separate opinions or theories, held respectively by the dwell- 
ers on the coast and those inland. The former believe that the jishin- 
uwo is a submarine monster, whose body is from half a ri to one 
ri in length. This fish strikes the shore or ocean-bottom in its gam- 
bols or in its wrath, and makes the ground rock and tremble. In 
times of great anger it not only causes the solid earth to quiver and 
crack, leveling houses in ruin, and ingulfing mountains, but, arching 
its back, piles the waters of the ocean into that sum of terror and 
calamity — a tidal wave. Among the people in the interior, however, 
the theory obtains that there exists a subterranean fish of prodigious 
length. According to some, its head is in the northern part of the 
main island, the place of fewest and lightest earthquakes, and its tail 
beneath the ground that lies between Tokio and Kioto. Others as- 
sert that the true position is the reverse of this. The motions of the 
monster are known by the tremors of the earth. A gentle thrill 
means that it is merely bristling its spines. When shocks of extraor- 
dinary violence are felt, the brute is on a rampage, and is flapping its 
flukes like a wounded whale. 

The limits of this chapter forbid any long description of the less 
important members of that ideal menagerie to which I have played 
the showman. Not a few instances have fallen under my own imme- 
diate notice of the pranks of two varieties of the genus tengu, which 
to the learned are symbolical of the male and female essences in 



THE MYTHICAL ZOOLOGY OF JAPAK 



487 



Chinese philosophy. These are in the one case long-nosed, and in 
the other long-billed goblins, that haunt mountain places and kidnap 
wicked children. Their faces are found in street shows, in picture- 
books, on works of art, and even in temples, all over the country. 
The native caricaturists are not afraid of them, and the funny artist 
has given us a sketch of a pair who are putting the nasal elongation 
to a novel use, in carrying the lunches. One is being " led by the 
nose," in a sense even stronger than the English idiom. The scrap 
of text, "hanami" ("to see the flowers"), is their term for junketing in 




Tengu going on a Picnic. (Hokusai.) 



the woods ; but the hindmost tengu is carrying pleasure to the verge 
of pain, since he has to hold up his lunch-box with his right, while he 
carries his mat to sit on and table-cloth in his left hand. He of the 
beak evidently best enjoys the fun of the matter. I might tell of 
cats which do not exist in the world of actual observation, which have 
nine tails, and torment people, and of those other double-tailed felines 
which appear in the form of old women. A tortoise with a wide- 
fringed tail, which lives ten thousand years, is found portrayed on 
miscellaneous works of art, in bronze, lacquer-ware, carved work, and 
in silver, and especially represented as the emblem of longevity at 



488 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

marriage ceremonies. The mermaid is not only an article of manufact- 
ure by nimble - fingered native taxidermists, but exists in the belief of 
the Japanese fishermen as certainly as it does not exist in the ocean. 

Among the miracle - figures or tableaux at Asakusa, to which we 
have already referred, is one representing a merman begging the 
prayers of a pious devotee. The Japanese guide-book says: "One 
day when a certain Jogu Taishi was passing the village of Ishidera, a 
creature with a head like a human being and a body like a fish ap- 
peared to him out of the rushes, and told him that in his previous 
state of existence he had been very fond of fishing. Now, being born 
into the world as a merman, he eagerly desired Jogu Taishi to erect a 
shrine to the honor of Kuanon, that by the great favor and mercy of 
the goddess he might be reborn into a higher form of life. Accord- 
ingly, Jogu Taishi erected a shrine, and carved with his own hands a 
thousand images of Kuanon. On the day on which he finished the 
carving of the last image, a ten-jin (angel) appeared to him and said, 
1 By your benevolence and piety I have been born into the regions of 
heaven.' " 

Little boys, tempted to devour too much candy, are frightened, not 
with prophecies of pain or threats of nauseous medicines, but by the 
fear of a hideous huge worm that will surely be produced by indul- 
gence in sweets. The Japanese bacchanals are called shojo. They are 
people who live near the sea, of long red hair, bleared eyes, and gaunt 
faces, who dance with wild joy before a huge jar of sake. On picnic 
boxes, sake cups, vases and jars of lacquered work, bronze, or porce- 
lain, these mythical topers, with the implements of their mirth and ex- 
cess, are seen represented. The associations of a Japanese child who 
first looks upon a man of red beard or hair may be imagined. So 
goes through all ages and ranks of life a more or less deep-rooted ter- 
ror of non-existent monstrosities ; and although many Japanese people 
in the cities and towns laugh at these superstitions, yet among the 
inaka, or country people, they are living realities, not to be trifled 
with or defied. In company, round the hearth, one fellow may be 
bold enough to challenge their existence ; but at night, on the lonely 
road, or in the mountain solitudes, or in the presence of nature's more 
awful phenomena, the boor, the child, and even the grown men who 
reason, are awed into belief and fear. That they are fading away, how- 
ever, year by year, is most evident. Science, the press, education, and 
Christianity are making these mythical animals extinct species in the 
geology of belief. 



FOLK -LOME AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 491 



xni. 

FOLK-LORE AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 

The hibachi, or fire-brazier, is to the Japanese household what the 
hearth or fire-place is in an Occidental home. Around it friends meet, 
the family gathers, parents consult, children play, the cat purrs, and 
the little folks listen to the fairy legends or household lore from nurse 
or gran dame. 

I have often, in many a Japanese home, seen children thus gathered 
round the hibachi, absorbing through open eyes and ears and mouth 
the marvelous stories which disguise the mythology, philosophy, and 
not a little of the wisdom of the world's childhood. Even the same 
world, with its beard grown, finds it a delight to listen now and then 
to the old wives' fables, and I propose in this chapter to give a few of 
the many short stories with which every Japanese child is familiar, 
and which I have often heard myself from children, or from the lips 
of older persons, while sitting round the hibachi, or which I have had 
written for me. The artist Ozawa, at my request, sketched such a 
scene as I have often looked upon. The grandmother has drawn the 
attention of her infantile audience to the highest tension of interest. 
Iron-bound top, picture-book, mask of Suzume, jumping- jack, devil 
in a band-box, and all other toys are forgotten, while eyes open and 
mouths gape as the story proceeds. Besides the gayly colored little 
books, containing the most famous stories for children, there are nu- 
merous published collections of tales, some of which are centuries old. 
Among those current in Japan are some of Indian, Chinese, and per- 
haps of other origin. 

The wonderful story of " Raiko and the Oni " is one of the most 
famous in the collection of Japanese grandmothers. Its power to 
open the mouths and distend the oblique eyes of the youngsters long 
after bed-time, is unlimited. I have before me a little stitched book of 
seven leaves, which I bought among a lot of two dozen or more in one 
of the colored print and book shops in Tokio. It is four inches long 
and three wide. On the gaudy cover, which is printed in seven col- 



492 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ors, is a picture of Raiko, the hero, in helmet and armor, grasping in 
both hands the faithful sword with which he slays the ghoul whose 
frightful face glowers above him. The hiragana text and wood-cuts 
within the covers are greatly worn, showing that many thousand cop- 
ies have been printed from the original and oft-retouched face of the 
cherry-wood blocks. The story, thus illustrated with fourteen engrav- 
ings, is as follows : 

A long while ago, when the mikado's power had slipped away into 
the hands of his regents, the guard at Kioto was neglected. There 
w r as a rumor in the city that oni, or demons, frequented the streets late 
at night, and carried off people bodily. The most dreaded place was 
at the Ra-jo gate, at the south-western entrance to the palace. Hither 
Watanabe, by order of Raiko, the chief captain of the guard, started 
one night, well armed. Wearily waiting for some hours, he became 
drowsy, and finally fell asleep. Seizing his opportunity, the wary 
demon put out his arm from behind the gate-post, caught Watanabe 
by the neck, and began to drag him up in the air. Watanabe awoke, 
and in an instant seized the imp by the wrist, and, drawing his sword, 
lopped the oni's arms off, who then leaped into the cloud, howling with 
pain. In the morning Watanabe returned, and laid the trophy at his 
master's feet. It is said that an oni's limb will not unite again if kept 
apart from the stump for a week. Watanabe put the hairy arm in a 
strong stone box, wreathed with twisted rice -straw, and watched it 
day and night, lest the oni should recover it. One night a feeble 
knock was heard at his door, and to his challenge his old aunt's 
voice replied. Of course, he let the old woman in. She praised her 
nephew's exploit, and begged him to let her see it. Being thus 
pressed, as he thought, by his old aunty, he slid the lid aside. " This 
is my arm," cried the hag, as she flew westward into the sky, chang- 
ing her form into a tusked and hairy demon. Tracing the oni's 
course, Raiko and four companions, disguised as Jcomuso (wandering 
priests), reached the pathless mountain Oye, in Tango, which they 
climbed. They found a beautiful young girl washing a bloody gar- 
ment. From her they learned the path to the oni's cave, and that 
the demons eat the men, and saved the pretty damsels alive. Ap- 
proaching, they saw a demon cook carving a human body, to make 
soup of. Entering the cave, they saw Shu ten ddji, a hideous, tusked 
monster, with long red hair, sitting on a pile of silken cushions, with 
about a hundred retainers around him, at a feast. Steaming dishes 
were brought in, full of human limbs, cooked in every style. The 



FOLK-LORE AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 493 

young damsels had to serve the demons, who quaffed sake out of 
human skulls. Raiko and his band pretended to join in the orgies, 
and amused the demons by a dance, after which they presented them 
with a bottle of sake which had been mixed with a narcotic. The 
chief drank a skullful and gave to his retainers. Soon all the demons 
were asleep, and a thunder-storm of snores succeeded. Then Raiko 
and his men threw off their disguise, drew sword, and cut off their 
heads, till the cave flowed blood like a river. The neck of the chief 
demon was wider than Raiko's sword, but the blade miraculously 
lengthened, and Raiko cut the monster's head off at one sweep. 
They then destroyed the treasure, released all the prisoners, and re- 
turned to Kioto in triumph, exposing the huge head along the streets. 

The red-haired, red-faced, or red-bearded aliens in Japan, who drink 
brandy out of tumblers, and then in drunken fury roam in the streets 
of Yokohama and Nagasaki, are not unfrequently compared to the in- 
toxicated monster beheaded by Raiko. The Japanese child who sees 
his parents indulge in sake from a tiny cup, and to whom black eyes 
and hair, and the Japanese form, face, and dress constitute the true 
standard, is amazed at the great size of the mugs and drinking-glasses 
from which the men of red beards and faces drink a liquid ten times 
stronger than sake. Very naturally, to the Japanese imagination and 
memory the drunken sailor appears a veritable sku ten doji. Never- 
theless, the Yokohama coolie does not call him by so classic a name. 
He frames a compound adjective from the imprecation which most 
frequently falls from the sailor's lips. In the "Yokohama dialect," 
the word for sailor is dammuraisu hito (" d — n-your-eyes " man). 

The story of " The Monkey and the Crab " has as many versions as 
that of " The Arkansas Traveler." It is continually re-appearing in 
new dress and with new variations, according to the taste and abili- 
ties of the audience. Its flavor, as told by the chaste mother instruct- 
ing her daughters, or by the vulgar coolie amusing his fellow-loafers 
while waiting for a job, is vastly different in either case. The most 
ordinary form of the story is as follows : 

Once upon a time there was a crab who lived in a hole on the 
shady side of a hill. One day he found a bit of rice-cake. A mon- 
key who was just finishing a persimmon met the crab, and offered to 
exchange its seed for the rice cracknel. The simple-minded crab ac- 
cepted the proposal, and the exchange was made. The monkey eat 
up the rice-cake, but the crab backed off home, and planted the seed 
in his garden. 

32 



494 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

A fine tree grew up, and the crab was delighted at the prospect of 
soon enjoying the luscious fruit. He built a nice new house, and 
used to sit on the balcony, watching the ripening persimmons. One 
day the monkey came along, and, being hungry, congratulated the 
crab on his fine tree, and begged for some of the fruit, offering to 
climb and gather it himself. The crab politely agreed, requesting his 
guest to throw down some of the fruit that he might enjoy it him- 
self. The ungrateful rascal of a monkey clambered up, and, after 
filling his pockets, eat the ripest fruit as fast as he could, pelting the 
crab with the seeds. The crab now determined to outwit the mon- 
key, and, pretending to enjoy the insults as good jokes, he dared the 
monkey to show his skill, if he could, by descending head foremost. 
The monkey, to show how versatile were his accomplishments, ac- 
cepted the friendly challenge, and turning flank — not tail — for Japa- 
nese monkeys have no tails — he began to come down head foremost. 
Of course, all the persimmons rolled out of his pockets. The crab, 
seizing the ripe fruit, ran off to his hole. The monkey, waiting till 
he had crawled out, gave him a sound thrashing, and went home. 

Just at that time a rice-mortar was traveling by with his several ap- 
prentices, a wasp, an egg, and a sea -weed. After hearing the crab's 
story, they agreed to assist him. Marching to the monkey's house, 
and finding him out, they arranged their plans and disposed their 
forces so as to vanquish their foe on his return. The egg hid in the 
ashes on the hearth, the wasp in the closet, the sea -weed near the 
door, and the mortar over the lintel. When the monkey came home 
he lighted a fire to steep his tea, when the egg burst, and so bespat- 
tered his face, that he ran howling away to the well for water to cool 
the pain. Then the wasp flew out and stung him. In trying to drive 
off this fresh enemy, he slipped on the sea-weed, and the rice-mortar, 
falling on him, crushed him to death. Wasn't that splendid? The 
wasp and the mortar and sea-weed lived happily together ever after- 
ward. 

The moral against greedy and ungrateful people needs no pointing. 
In one of the recently published elementary works on natural philoso- 
phy, written in the vernacular of Tokio, I have seen the incident of 
the bursting egg utilized to illustrate the dynamic power of heat at 
the expense of the monkey. Another story, used to feather the shaft 
aimed at greedy folks, is that of the elves and the envious neighbor. 
The story is long, but, condensed, is as follows : 

A wood -cutter, overtaken by a storm and darkness among the 



FOLK-LORE AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 495 

mountains, seeks shelter in a hollow tree. Soon he saw little creatures, 
some of a red color, wearing blue clothes, and some of a black color, 
wearing red clothes. Some had no mouth ; others had but one eye. 
There were about one hundred of them. At midnight the elves, hav- 
ing lighted a fire, began to dance and carouse, and the man, forgetting 
his fright, joined them and began to dance. Finding him so jolly a 
companion, and wishing him to return the next night, they took from 
the left side of his face a large wen that disfigured it, as pawn, and 
disappeared. The next day, having told his story in high glee, an 
envious neighbor, who was also troubled with a wen on the right side 
of his face, resolved to possess his friend's luck, and went out to the 
same place. At night the elves assembled to drink and enjoy a jig. 
The man now appeared, and, at the invitation of the chief elf, began 
to dance. Being an awkward fellow, and not to be compared with 
the other man, the elves grew angry, and said, " You dance very bad- 
ly this time. Here, you may have your pledge, the wen, back again." 
With that an elf threw the wen at the man. It stuck to his cheek, 
and he went home, crying bitterly, with two wens instead of one. 

Stories of cats, rabbits, dogs, monkeys, and foxes, who are born, 
pass through babyhood, are nursed, watched, and educated by anxious 
parents with all due moral and religious training, enjoy the sports 
proper to their age, fall in love, marry, rear a family, and live happy 
ever afterward to a green old age, form the staple of the tiny picture- 
books for tiny people. When told by garrulous nurses or old gran- 
nies, the story becomes a volume, varied and colored from rich imagi- 
nation or actual experience. 

A great many funny stories are told about blind men, who are often 
witty wags. They go about feeling their way with a staff, and blow- 
ing a double-barreled whistle which makes a peculiarly ugly noise. 
They shave their heads, and live by shampooing tired travelers at 
hotels, or people who like to be kneaded like' a sponge or dough. 
They also loan out money at high rates of interest, public sympathy 
being their sure guard against loss. Even among these men the spirit 
of caste and rank prevails, and the chief blind man of a city or town 
usually holds an official diploma. On the occasion of such an award 
the bald-pates enjoy a feast together. After imbibing freely, they 
sing songs, recite poetry, and crack jokes, like merry fellows with 
eyes, and withal, at them because having eyes, some can not see — to 
read. Here is a sample. An illiterate country gawk, while in the 
capital, saw a learned man reading with eyeglasses on. Thereupon, 



496 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

he hastened to an optician's, and bought a pair. He was both an- 
noyed and surprised to find he could not make out a word. 

A story is told of two men who were stone-deaf, who met together 
one morning, when the following dialogue took place : 

First Post " Good-morning. Are you going to buy sake V 

Second Post. " No. I am going to buy sake." 

Third Post. " Oh, excuse me, I thought you were going to buy 
sake." 

I heard the following story from one of my students from Fukui. 
It is a favorite with the professional story-tellers in Tokio. It reminds 
one of the Spaniard who is said to have put on magnifying spectacles 
while eating grapes, or the Yankee who strapped green eyeglasses on 
his horse while feeding him on shavings : 

A very economical old fellow, named Kisaburo, once took lodgings 
near a shop to which the elite of the epicures of Yedo resorted daily 
for the delicacy of eels fried in soy. The appetizing odor was wafted 
into his quarters, and Kisaburo, being a man of strong imagination, 
daily enjoyed his frugal meal of boiled rice by his palate, and the sa- 
vory smoke of eels through his olfactories, and thus saved the usual 
expense of fish and vegetables. 

The eel-frier, on discovering this, made up his mind to charge his 
stingy neighbor for the smell of his eels, and paid him a visit with 
his bill made out. Kisaburo, taking it in good humor, called his wife, 
who brought out the cash-box. After jingling the bag of money, he 
touched it on the bill, and replacing it in the box under lock, ordered 
his wife to return it to its place. The eel-man, amazed at such finan- 
ciering, cried out, " Well, are you not going to pay me ?" " Oh no !" 
said Kisaburo, " you have charged me for the smell of your eels ; I 
have paid you back with the sound of my money." 

A story very similar to this, which I have transcribed as I heard it, 
is given by Rabelais, Third Book, thirty-seventh chapter. 

Stories illustrating the freaks of absent-minded men are very nu- 
merous. Here is one, told me by a village lad from near Takefu, in 
Echizen. A farmer's wife about to enjoy the blessing of addition to 
her family besought her husband to visit a famous shrine of Kuan- 
on, the Goddess of Mercy, and make an offering and pray for easy 
deliverance of her offspring. The good wife packed up a lunch for 
her husband in a box of lacquered wood, and took out one hundred 
cash (about one and a half cents) from their hoard, which was kept in 
an old bag made of rushes, in a jar under the floor, as a gift to be 



FOLK-LORE AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 497 

thrown into the temple coffer to propitiate the deity. At early morn 
the man prepared to start, but in a fit of absent-mindedness, instead of 
his lunch-box, he took the pillow (a Japanese pillow is often a box of 
drawers holding the requisites of a woman's coiffure, with a tiny bol- 
ster on the top), and, carefully wrapping it up, set off, and in due 
time arrived at the shrine. Now, the husband was less devout than his 
spouse, and, being ten miles away from her tongue and eye, he decided 
to throw but ten cash into the sacred coffers, and spend the remaining 
ninety on a bottle of sake, to be served by a pretty waiter-girl at the 
adjoining tea-house. So he divided his money into two packages, but 
in his absent-mindedness he unintentionally flung the larger amount 
into the temple box. Annoyed on discovering his bad luck, he offered 
his prayers in no very holy frame of mind, and then sat down to en- 
joy his lunch. Not being able to eat the hair-pins, pomatum, etc., in 
the pillow-box, he made his way to an eating-shop to buy a bit of 
mochi (rice-dough) to satisfy his hunger. Again his greed and absent- 
mindedness led him to grief, for, seeing a large round piece of what he 
thought was good dough for short-cake for only five cash, he bought 
it and hurried of, thinking the shop-girl had made a mistake, which 
she would soon discover at her cost. When he went to eat it, how- 
ever, he found it was only a plaster show-piece for the dough. Chew- 
ing the cud of bitter reflections, the hungry man at dark reached, as 
he supposed, his home ; and seeing, as he thought, his wife lighting a 
lantern, greeted her with a box on the ear. The woman, startled at 
such conduct, screamed, bringing her husband to her relief, and the 
absent-minded man, now recovering his senses again, ran for his life ; 
but when beyond danger he relapsed into his old habits, and reaching 
his own dwelling, found himself begging pardon of his own amazed 
wife for having boxed her ears. 

One of the many tales of filial revenge (see page 222) told to chil- 
dren is that of " the Soga boys." In the time of Yoritomo, while on 
a hunt in the mountains, one Kudo shot and killed Kawadzu. Of the 
slain man's two sons, one was sent to a monastery in the Hakone 
mountains, to be educated for the Buddhist priesthood. There, as he 
grew up, he learned all about the death of his father, and who his 
murderer was. From that time, he thought of nothing but how to 
compass his death. Meanwhile, the other son was adopted by one 
Soga, and became a skillful fencer. At Oiso, on the Tokaido, the 
two orphans finally meet, lay their plans, feast together, and prepare 
to join the great hunt of Yoritomo on the slopes of Mount Fuji. On 



498 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the night after, they attack the quarters where the tired Kudo lies 
asleep. They beat down the servants who try to defend him, and 
sate their revenge by cutting off his head. 

Of foxes and badgers I have written elsewhere. I have in this 
chapter of folk-lore, given only a few specimens from a great store- 
house. This last is called " The Boy of Urashima." 

In the reign of the Empress Suiko (a.d. 593-628) there lived, on a 
small island off the coast of Tango, a poor fisherman and his wife. 
Though too poor to provide more than the barest necessaries of life, 
they managed, being pious folks, to keep the lamp always burning in 
the shrine of Riu Jin, the sea-god, their patron. Night and morn- 
ing they offered up their prayers, and, though their meals might be 
scanty, they never failed to burn a stick of incense at the shrine. 

To this good couple a dear son was born, who grew up to be pious 
and dutiful, and to be the staff of his aged parents. When they were 
too old to go out to fish, Taro, the son, caught enough fish to sup- 
port himself and them. Now, it happened that one day in autumn 
Taro was out, as usual, in his boat, though the sea was rough and the 
waves high. The increasing storm finally compelled him to seek shel- 
ter in his hut. He uttered a prayer to the sea-god, and turned his 
prow homeward. Suddenly there appeared, on the crest of the waves, 
a divine being, robed in white, riding upon a large tortoise. Approach- 
ing the wearied fisherman, he greeted him kindly, and said, " Follow 
me, and I will make you a happy man." 

Taro, leaving his boat, and mounting the tortoise with his august 
companion, the tortoise sped away with marvelous celerity; and on 
they journeyed for three days, passing some of the most wonderful 
sights human being ever beheld. There were ponds of perfectly 
transparent water filled with the fish he daily caught, and others with 
strange species. The roads were lined with rare and fragrant trees 
laden with golden fruit, and flowers more beautiful than he had ever 
seen or imagined. Finally, they came to a great gate of white mar- 
ble, of rare design and imposing proportion. Richly dressed ladies 
and pages were waiting to welcome him. He entered a golden pa- 
lanquin, and amidst trains of courtiers was borne to the palace of 
the king, and treated with honor and courtesy. The splendors of 
this palace it is not possible to describe in the language of earth. 
Taro was assigned to one of the fairest apartments, and beautiful girls 
waited upon him, and a host of servants were ready to do his bid- 
ding. Feasts, music, songs, dancing, gay parties, were given in his hon- 



FOLK-LORE AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 499 

or. Many of the people around him seemed very remarkable beings. 
Some had heads made of shells, some of coral. All the lovely colors 
of nacre, the rarest tints which man can see beneath the deep-blue 
sea when the ocean's floor is visible, appeared on their dresses and or- 
naments. Their jewels of pearls and precious stones and gold and 
silver were profuse, but wrought in exquisite art. Taro could scarce- 
ly tell whether the fascinating creatures were human or not ; but he 
was very happy, and his hosts so kind that he did not stop to notice 
their peculiarities. That he was in fairy -land he knew, for such 
wealth was never seen, even in king's palaces, on earth. 

After Taro had spent, as he supposed, seven days at the king's pal- 
ace, he wished to go and see his parents. He felt it was wrong to be 
so happy when he was uncertain of their fate in the upper world. 
The king allowed his request, and, on parting with him, gave him a 
box. " This," said he, " I give you on condition that you never open 
it, nor show it to any one, under any circumstances whatever." Taro, 
wondering, received it, and bid adieu to the king. He was escorted 
to the white marble gate, and, mounting the same tortoise, reached the 
spot where he had left his boat. The tortoise then left him. 

Taro was all alone. He looked round, and saw nothing on the 
strand. The mountains and rocks were familiar, but no trace of his 
parents' hut was seen. He began to make inquiries, and finally learn- 
ed from an old gray-headed fisherman that, centuries before, the per- 
sons he described as his parents had lived there, but had been buried 
so long ago that their names could be read only by scraping the moss 
and lichens off the very oldest stones of the grave-yard in the valley 
yonder. Thither Taro hied, and after long search found the tomb of 
his dear parents. He now, for the first time since he had left his 
boat — as he thought, a few days ago — felt the pangs of sorrow. He 
felt an irresistible longing to open the box. He did so. A purple 
vapor, like a cloud, issued and suffused his head for a moment. A 
cold shiver ran through him. He tried to rise ; his limbs were stiff 
and bent. His face was wrinkled ; his teeth dropped out ; his limbs 
trembled ; he was an old man, with the weight of four centuries on 
him. His infirmities were too great for flesh to bear ; he died a few 
days afterward. 

I have given the story as it was current in Echizen. I have also 
heard it told with the location on the shores of the Bay of Yedo. 
Another version makes the strand of a river in Shinano the place of 
Taro's departure and return. In another form of the story, Taro re- 



500 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



turns to find his parents dwelling in a glorious mansion. After greet- 
ings are over, the old folks are curious to know what the box con- 
tains. Taro, persuaded, opens it, to find himself, alone and old, on a 
desolate shore. The story is undoubtedly very old. It is found in 
several books, and has been often made the subject of art. The fish- 
ermen in various parts of Japan worship the good boy of TJrashima, 
who, even in the palaces of the sea-gods, forgot not his old parents. 

The four following stories are a few of many told of a famous 
judge, named Oka, who, for wisdom, shrewdness, and judicial acumen, 
may be called the Solomon of Japan. I first heard of his wondrous 
decisions when in Tokio, but there is a book of anecdotes of him, and 
a record of his decisions, called the Oka Jinseidan. I suppose they 
are true narrations. 

A certain man possessed a very costly pipe, made of silver inlaid 
with gold, of which he was very proud. One day a thief stole it. 
After some vain search, Oka heard that a man in a certain street had 
such a pipe, but it was not certain whether it was his own or the 
stolen article. He found out the truth concerning the pipe in the 
following ingenious manner. 




Japanese Pipe of Bamboo and Brass, Pipe-case, and Tobacco-pouch. 

A Japanese pipe is usually made of a tiny bowl, or bowl-piece, fit- 
ted to a mouth-piece with a bamboo tube. Sometimes all the parts 
are in one, the material being metal or porcelain. The mild tobacco, 
cut into finest shreds, like gossamer, is rolled up in pellets, and lighted 
at a live coal in the brazier. After one or two whiffs, a fresh ball is 



FOLK-LORE AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 501 

introduced. A native will thus sit by the hour, mechanically rolling 
up these tobacco pills, utterly oblivious of the details of the act. Like 
certain absent-minded people, who look at their watches a dozen times, 
yet can not tell, when asked, what time it may be, so a Japanese, while 
talking at ease, will often be unable to remember whether he has 
smoked or not. After long mechanical practice, his nimble fingers 
with automatic precision roll the pellet to a size that exactly fills the 
bowl of the pipe. 

The shrewd judge found an opportunity to see the suspected man a 
short time after the theft. He noticed him draw out the golden pipe, 
and abstractedly roll up a globule of tobacco from his pouch. It was 
too small. On turning to the brazier, and turning the mouth of the 
bowl sideward or downward, the pellet rolled out. Here was positive 
proof to Oka that the golden pipe was not his own. The thief, on be- 
ing charged with the theft, confessed his guilt, and was punished. 

On another occasion a seller of pickled vegetables of various sorts, 
a miserly old fellow, being rich, and fearing thieves, kept his gold in 
a deep dish full of dai-kon (radishes), preserved in a liquid mixture 
composed of their own fermented juice, salt, and the skin of rice- 
grains. When long kept, the mass has a most intolerable odor, and 
to remove the smell from the hands after working in it stout scrub- 
bing with ashes is necessary. Now, it so happened that one of the 
neighbors found out the whereabouts of the pickler's savings, and, 
when his back was turned, stole. The old pickler kept his heart at 
the bottom of his radishes, and on his return, on examination, found 
his treasure gone. Forthwith informing the judge, Oka called in all 
the neighbors, and, after locking the doors, began, to the amazement of 
all and the horror of one, to smell the hands of those present. The 
unmistakable odor of dai-kon clung to one man, who thereupon con- 
fessed, disgorged, and received punishment. 

Cases which other judges failed to decide were referred to Oka. 
Often the very threat of bringing a suspected man before this Solomon 
secured confession after other means had failed. 

A young mother, being poor, was obliged to go out to service, and 
to leave her little daughter at the house of another woman to bring 
up for her. When the child grew up to womanhood, the mother was 
able to leave service, expecting to live with her daughter, and enjoy 
her love. To her surprise, on going to the house of the woman who 
had charge of her daughter, the woman claimed the girl as her own 
child, and refused to give her up. 



502 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

When brought before Oka, there being no evidence but the con- 
flicting testimony of the women, who both claimed maternity, the 
judge ordered them each to take hold of an arm of the young girl 
and pull. Whoever was the strongest should have her. 

Not daring to disobey, the true mother reluctantly took gentle 
hold, while the other claimant seized a hand, and, bracing herself for 
the struggle, pulled with all her might. No sooner did the girl utter 
a cry of pain than the true mother dropped her hand, refusing to try 
again. Her friends urged her to continue the trial, and her antago- 
nist dared her to go on, but the mother was firm. The judge, silent 
and attentive the while, then angrily addressed the cruel woman as a 
deceiver, void of all maternal feeling, who regarded not the pain of 
her pretended offspring. He then ordered the girl to be restored to 
her true mother. The false claimant was dismissed in disgrace. 
Mother and child were overjoyed, and the witnesses astonished at 
such judicial wisdom. 

In another case, a rich merchant of Yedo went to Kioto on busi- 
ness, and was absent thirteen months. On his return he found that 
his wife had been unfaithful to him. After fruitless efforts to extort 
her secret and find her paramour, he went to Oka. On a certain day, 
all the male relations, friends, and neighbors assembled, and, one by 
one, were called into the judgment -hall, and questioned. Oka told 
the husband to bring with him his cat, which had for years been a 
pet in the house. With the cat quietly nestled at his side, he leisurely 
questioned each person. No clue could be obtained, until one young 
man appeared and took his seat, as usual, on his heels and knees, on 
the matting. The cat, now interested, ran briskly up, rubbed itself 
against his knees, and, being stroked by the man, finally climbed up in 
his lap, and cuddled itself up as if perfectly familiar with that comfort- 
able place. All this time the young man was looking in the judge's 
face, and answering his questions, forgetful of the cat. The question- 
ing being finished, the judge ordered the officers to bind the man and 
conduct him to prison. The man, who was inwardly congratulating 
himself on his clever answers, and his freedom even from suspicion, 
thought Oka was helped by the gods, and confessed his crime. 

I have an ivory and a wood carving, both nitsuki, representing the 
Japanese form of the story of Rip Van Winkle, which is, perhaps, 
a universal myth. The ivory figure is that of an old man leaning on 
the handle of an axe. His hair is long and white, and his snowy beard 
sweeps his breast and falls below his girdle. He is intently watching 



FOLK-LORE AND FIRESIDE STORIES. 503 

two female figures playing a game of checkers. The story (of Chinese 
origin) is, as told by Japanese story-tellers, as follows : 

Lu-wen was a pious wood-cutter, who dwelt at the base of the ma- 
jestic and holy mountain Tendai, the most glorious peak of the Nan- 
lin range, in China. Though he thought himself familiar with the 
paths, he for some reason one day lost his way, and wandered about, 
having; his axe with him. He did not care, however, because the 
beauty of the landscapes, the flowers, and the sky seemed to possess 
his senses, and he gave himself up to the ecstasy of the hour, enjoy- 
ing all the pleasant emotions of holy contemplation. All at once he 
heard a crackling sound, and immediately a fox ran out before him 
and into the thickets again. The wood -cutter started to pursue it.' 
He ran some distance, when suddenly he emerged into a space where 
two lovely ladies, seated on the ground, were engaged in playing a 
game of checkers. The bumpkin stood still and gazed with all his 
sight at the wonderful vision of beauty before him. The players ap- 
peared to be unaware of the presence of an intruder. The wood-cut- 
ter still stood looking on, and soon became interested in the game 
as well as in the fair players. After some minutes, as he supposed, 
he bethought himself to return. On attempting to move away, his 
limbs felt very stiff, and his axe-handle fell to pieces. Stooping down 
to pick up the worm - eaten fragments, he was amazed to find, instead 
of his shaven face of the morning, a long white beard covering his 
bosom, while, on feeling his head, he discovered on it a mass of silken 
white hair. 

The wrinkled old man, now dazed with wonder, hobbled down the 
mountain to his native village. He found the streets the same, but 
the houses were filled with new faces; crowds of children gathered 
round him, teasing and laughing at him ; the dogs barked at the 
stranger ; and the parents of the children shook their heads and won- 
dered among themselves as to whence the apparition had come. The 
old man, in agony of despair, asked for his wife and children and 
relatives. The incredulous people set him down as a fool, knowing 
nothing of whom he asked, and treating his talk as the drivel of luna- 
tic senility. Finally, an old grandam hobbled up, and said she was 
a descendant of the seventh generation of a man named Lu-wen. 
The old man groaned aloud, and, turning his back on all, retraced his 
weary steps to the mountain again. He was never heard of more, and 
it is believed he entered into the company of the immortal hermits 
and spirits of the mountain. 



504 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XIV. 

JAPANESE PROVERBS. 

The proverbs of a nation are mirrors of its character. Not only 
the genius and wit, but the prejudices, the loves, the hates, the stand- 
ards of actions and morals, are all faithfully reflected in the condensed 
wisdom of their pithy phrases. Most proverbs are of anonymous au- 
thorship. " The wisdom of many and the wit of one," a proverb is 
saved from death because clothed in brevity, rhythm, or alliteration. 
Every man hails it as his own, because he recognizes his own heart in 
it. Proverbs are often tell-tale truths, for a nation sometimes out- 
grows its prejudices and becomes ashamed of its own familiar beliefs. 
Proverbs thus become the labels of antiquities in the museum of 
speech. They are fossils which show how opinions which had life 
and force long ago are now defunct and forgotten. TJnexplainable 
to latter generations, they, as the fossils of geology once were, are 
thought to be lusus naturce. 

The delver among the treasures of Japanese lore finds proverbs both 
new and old, and in them sees ancient landmarks and modern finger- 
posts. 

The proverbs of a nation so long isolated from the world must 
needs have peculiar interest to the rest of that world. We shall see 
in most of them, however, the clear reflection of that human heart 
which beats responsive beneath the toga, the camel's-hair raiment, the 
broadcloth, and the silk haori. 

It has often been a delightful feeling, when stumbling upon some 
untranslatable but tickling morsel of wisdom, to reach its heart by 
quoting one of our own homely and pretty proverbs. Many of our 
old friends may be recognized in Japanese costume. Nothing so 
touches the Japanese heart and nature as the unexpected quotation of 
one of their old proverbs. Especially in the lecture-room does it give 
point and clinching force to a statement or explanation. When be- 
fore his class, the teacher sees no response or sympathy in the earnest 



JAPANESE PROVERBS. 505 

but stolid faces of his Japanese pupils, and when every chosen arrow 
flies the mark, let a shaft feathered with one of their own proverbs be 
sent : instantly a gleam of intelligence, like a sunburst, or an assuring 
peal of merry laughter, proclaims the centre struck and success won. 

I shall arrange together a few of the most familiar of Japanese 
proverbs. Lest some might think the Japanese plagiarize from us, or 
lest some " resemblance "-monger should catch a few to put in his " In- 
dex Rerum," or " familiar quotations," I would remark that, apparent- 
ly, many of these proverbs were current in Japan before Caesar was 
born or America discovered. 

The following are expressions for what is impossible : To build a 
bridge to the clouds. To throw a stone at the sun. To scatter a fog 
with a fan. To dip up the ocean with the hand. 

Like our " No rose without a thorn," is their There's a thorn on 
the rose. 

Good doctrine needs no miracles, is the Japanese rationalist's arrow 
against the Buddhist bonzes. 

The fly seeks out the diseased spot, as people do in their neighbors' 
character. 

As different as the moon is from a tortoise. (Cheese, green or oth- 
erwise, is not made or eaten by the Japanese.) 

The natives of the Islands in the Four Seas are better boatmen than 
cooks, too many of whom spoil the broth, but, With too many boat- 
men, the boat runs up a hill. 

The universal reverence of youth for age is enjoined in this : Regard 
an old man as thy father. 

The fortune-teller can not tell his own fortune. 

The doctor does not keep himself well. 

Some men can do more than Goldsmith's school-master : They can 
argue until a crow's head becomes white. 

A narrow-minded man or bigot looks at the heavens through a reed, 
or a needle's eye. 

Our " cat in a strange garret " is metamorphosed into the' more 
dignified figure of A hermit in the market-place. 

The dilatory man seeing the lion, begins to whet his arrows. The 
beaten soldier fears even the tops of the tall grass. Fighting spar- 
rows fear not man. 

Only a tidbit to a ravenous mouth. (Said when the little tidbit 
Denmark flies down the huge gullet of Prussia; or when Saghalin 
falls into Russia's maw.) 



506 TEE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

By losing, gain. 

Give opportunity to genius. 

To give an iron club to a devil is to give riches to a bad man. 

While the hunter looks afar after birds, they fly up and escape at 
his feet. 

The ignorant man is gentle. 

Don't give a ko-ban to a cat. 

Akin to "The heart knoweth its own bitterness" are The sage 
sickens ; The beautiful woman is unhappy. 

Every one suffers either from his pride or sinfulness. 

Even a calamity, left alone for three years, may turn into a fortune. 

No danger of a stone being burned. 

Even a running horse needs the whip. 

An old man's cold water — i. e., out of place, unreasonable. The 
Japanese nearly always wash their hands and faces with hot water, 
and old men invariably do so. For an old man, then, to wash with 
cold water, or for one to bring him cold water, is decidedly mat a 
propos. 

Birds flock on the thick branches. 

The fox borrowed the tiger's power. 

Giving wings to a tiger. 

Dark as the lantern's base, while the light streams far abroad. 
(People must go to a distance to learn the news about things at home. 
This is emphatically true about residents in Japan who read home 
newspapers.) 

Heaven does not kill a man. (No one is utterly crushed by calam- 

%.) 

A curse comes not from a god with whom one has no concern. 
(Men are not to be punished by a god of whom they have never heard.) 

Like jumping into the fire with a bundle of wood. (Especially used 
of a small nation going to war against a large one, only to be " gob- 
bled up.") 

Having inquired seven times, believe the common report. 

Even the worm that eats smart-weed, to his taste. (" Every one to 
his liking." " No accounting for taste.") 

Was it a wife comparing the attentions of her husband before and 
after marriage who coined this proverb, or heaved it as a sigh ? It 
tells a sad tale of a woman who has borne mother-pain and marriage 
cares only to be rewarded by coldness. In Japan, the unmarried girls 
only wear the red petticoat, which peeps out so prettily at times, or 



JAPANESE PROVERBS. 507 

glistens through the summer dress of silken crape. After marriage, 
they doff this virginal garment ; and as it was with Whittier's, so with 
the Japanese Maud Muller, "care and sorrow and childbirth -pain" 
leave their trace on the once blooming face and willowy form, in 
which her partner no longer delights. Alas ! what a tale does this 
proverb tell : Love leaves with the red petticoat ! 

When people say " as ugly as sin," meaning thereby as ugly as 
Milton's hag, and suppose that the blind bard's conception of ugliness 
eclipses every other, they have, most evidently, never looked upon the 
face of the Japanese lord of Jigoku, or the hells, of which the Bud- 
dhists count one hundred and twenty-eight. To say that his face is 
hideous or describe it in adjectives, is to damn with faint praise the 
native imagination that could conceive such a terror. What I mean 
by reference to this demon, who is called Ema, is to give point to the 
Japanese version of our homely reference to the man who will have 
his fun, but " must pay the fiddler." The proverb by which every 
steady-going Japanese exults at the end of the fast and, perhaps fine- 
looking young man who sports on credit, is, When the time comes 
to settle up, you'll see Ema's face. 

W T hich does the following recall — the ostrich, which, hiding its 
head, thinks itself safe, or the youth who reads ghost-stories till his 
blood curdles, but who, by covering up in the bedclothes, feels safe ? 
The proverb, The head is concealed, but the back is exposed, is ap- 
plied by the Japanese to all who, to flee from spooks, and to guard 
against lightning, hide in the dark or under their coverlets. 

Here is an exquisite bit of philosophy, which shows that "travels 
at one's fireside," or what Emerson has taught of seeing at home all 
that travelers behold abroad, are not strange ideas in Japan : The 
poet, though he does not go abroad, sees all the renowned places. 

Some one has said of the sage : " He keeps his child's heart." All 
know Wordsworth's line, which is approximated in this : The child 
of three years keeps his heart till he is sixty. 

The idea contained in the saying, " Talk of ah angel, and you will 
hear the rustling of his wings," or " Speak of the Devil," etc., is con- 
fined only to the genus Homo in the Japanese proverb : Talk of a 
person, and his shadow appears. 

Sydney Smith condensed a volume of dietetic hygiene in his exact 
statement that " Some men dig their graves with their teeth." The 
complement of that is found in this : Disease enters by the mouth ; 
or, The mouth is the door of disease. 



508 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

The following are all in the form of a simile : Like walking on thin 
ice (like a politician before election -day). To give a thief a key. 
Like scratching the foot with the shoe on (can not reach the seat of 
trouble). Like placing a child near a well. One hair of nine oxen 
(small fraction). Like the crow that imitated the cormorant (he tried 
to dive in the water, and was drowned). Like spitting against the 
wind (said of a wicked slander against a good man). The decree of 
the mikado is like perspiration ; it can never go back (" Firm as the 
laws of the Medes and Persians "). 

Proverbs, like certain kinds of money, vary in the amount and ra- 
pidity of their circulation. A class of Japanese proverbs, such as 
" The frog in the well knows not the great ocean," which lay almost 
forgotten in the national memory for centuries, has come forth, and is 
now the circulating medium of those who bandy the retorts applica- 
ble to old fogies and old fogyism. The conservatives who impede or 
oppose reform in Japan, claiming that Japan is all-sufficient in herself, 
are usually styled " frogs " by the young blades who have been abroad 
and seen the world beyond Japan, who also refer to the past as the 
time when that country was " in a well." 

There are several other proverbs like that of the " well-frog ;" but 
they depend for their interest upon references to things not easily ex- 
plained by mere translation. The " great ocean," however, mirrors it- 
self in the Japanese mind ever as the symbol of immensity. Thus : 
A drop of the ocean is our "drop in the bucket." To dam up the 
great ocean with the hand. The ocean does not mind the dust (a 
great man lives down slander). The ocean, being wide, can not be 
all seen at once (a great subject can not be treated fairly by a bigot). 
To dip out the water of the ocean with a small shell. 

The Japanese have a lively sense of the iniquity of ingratitude: 
Better nourish a dog than an unfaithful servant. To have one's hand 
bitten by the dog it feeds. 

That paternal solicitude is not unknown in the land of Great Peace, 
is evinced by these : Childbirth is less painful than anxiety about 
children. It is easier to beget children than to care for them. Catch- 
ing a thief to find him your own son. 

Don't trust a pigeon to carry grain. (Don't send one man to bring 
back another from a place of pleasure, lest he also be tempted.) 

If in a hurry, go round. (" The longest way round is the shortest 
way home." " The more hurry, the less speed.") 

The spawn of frogs will become but frogs. 



JAPANESE PROVERBS. 509 

By saving one cash (one one-hundredth of a cent) lose a hundred 
(one tempo). Cash wise, tempo foolish. 

Only a tailor's (dyer's) promise. 

The walls have ears. Pitchers have spouts. 

Deaf men speak loudly. 

There is no medicine for a fool. 

You can not rivet a nail in potato custard. 

He wishes to do both — to eat the poisoned delicacy and live. 

By searching the old, learn the new. 

Once I asked some of our students whether there was any Japanese 
proverb which answered to the old English one, " Happy is the man 
whose father has gone to the devil." Several of them answered with 
this familiar one: Jigohu no sata mo, kane shidai — the tortures of 
hell are graded according to the amount of money one has ; or, briefly 
and literally, even hell's judgments are according to money. 

The Buddhists, like the mediaeval priests in Europe, sell their masses 
at a high price. Happy the dying rich man, but woe betide the poor ! 
In most Japanese Buddhist temples, as in Roman churches in Europe, 
a box hangs up to receive cash for the mutual benefit of the damned 
and the priests — especially the latter. 

The rat-catching cat hides her claws. 

If you keep a tiger, you will have nothing but trouble. 

An ugly woman shuns the looking-glass. 

Poverty leads to theft. 

To aim a gun in the darkness. In vain. 

The more words, the less sense. 

Like the peeping of a blind man through a hedge. 

A charred stick is easily kindled. 

Who steals money, is killed ; who steals a country, is a king. 

If you do not enter the tiger's den, you can not get her cub. 

In mending the horn, he killed the ox. 

The best thing in traveling is a companion ; in the world, kindness. 

To draw off water to his own field. (Most of the fields in Japan are 
irrigated rice-fields. Water is always a desideratum. This proverb is 
like our " Feather his own nest.") 

Famous swords are made of iron scrapers. 

Like learning to swim in a field. 

Though the magnet attracts iron, it can not attract stone. 

Here is something almost Shakspearian : The gods have their seat 
on the brow of a just man. 

33 



510 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

If you say to him " gently," he will say " slam." 

A sixth-day camellia. (A great flower festival comes on the fifth of 
a certain month. To bring your flower on the sixth day is to bring it 
a day after the fair.) 

Now sinking, now floating. (" Such is life.") 

Poke a canebrake, and a snake will crawl out. 

Like carrying a cup brimful. 

To feed with honey ; i. e., to flatter. 

Proof is better than discussion. 

Use the cane before you fall down. 

Like casting a stone at an egg. 

A roving dog runs against a stick. (A man willing to work will 
surely find employment.) 

To avoid the appearance of evil three proverbs are given: Don't 
wipe your shoes in a melon-patch. Don't adjust your cap while pass- 
ing under a pear-tree. Don't stay long when the husband is not at 
home. 

A bad report runs one thousand ri (two thousand three hundred and 
thirty-three miles). 

Lust has no bottom. 

The world is just as a person's heart makes it. 

Send the child you love most on a journey. (To save him from be- 
ing spoiled by indulgence.) 

Cast the lion's cub into the valley. Let the pet son travel abroad. 

Give sails to dexterity. 

He conceals a sword under a laugh. 

To make two enemies injure each other. 

I have never heard of any Japanese " Samivel " receiving monitory 
advice concerning "vidders;" but Japanese fathers often throw out 
this caveat to their sons when contemplating marriage : Beware of a 
beautiful woman ; she is like red pepper. 

The good bonzes sometimes preach rather long sermons. Their 
shaven-pated hearers do not snap their hunting-case watches under the 
pulpit. Nevertheless, this is what they say and think. They often 
test a speaker's merit, and measure the soul of his wit, by his brevity. 
The unskillful speaker is long-winded; or, It takes a clever man to 
preach a short sermon. 

The following is said by an educated idolater, who worships the 
deity beyond the image, the pious sculptor, or the sneerer at all idola- 
try. Making an idol, does not give it a soul. 



JAPANESE PRO VERS. 511 

If you hate any one, let him live. 

As there are plenty of hypocrites in Japan, but no crocodiles, our 
zoological metaphor is altered. Lachrymal shams are called " a 
devil's tears." 

A clumsy fellow commits hara-kiri with a pestle. 

Live under your own hat, is the Japanese expression for "Be con- 
tent," or " Let well-enough alone." 

They extinguish meddlesome busybodies, or those who talk too 
much, by saying, " Make a lid for that fool ; cover him up." 

The women of Japan have tongues. I knew several old shrews who 
used their husbands as grindstones to sharpen a certain edge-tool 
which they kept in their mouth. Either a Japanese carpenter or one 
having an eye for metronomics first noticed this brilliant fact, that 
The tongue three inches long can kill a man six feet high. 

Give victuals to your enemy. (The word translated "victuals" 
means food for animals, such as beasts, birds, fishes, etc., or bait ; and 
some Japanese say it should read, " Give bait to your enemy " — i. e., 
revenge yourself on him skillfully, by stratagem.) 

A cur that bravely barks before its own gate. (So that it may run 
inside, in case it catches a Tartar.) 

Even a monkey sometimes falls from a tree. 

To rub salt on a sore. ("Adding insult to injury.") 

Excess of politeness becomes impoliteness. 

A blind man does not fear a snake. (" Fools rush in where angels 
fear to tread.") 

Poverty can not overtake diligence. 

The heron can rise from the stream without stirring up the mud. 
(Delicacy, tact.) 

Adapt the preaching to the hearer. 

If you call down a curse on any one, look out for two graves. 
(" Curses, like young chickens, always come home to roost.") 

As string for our bouquet, here is something which, whether prov- 
erb or not, has a meaning: When life is ruined for sake of money's 
preciousness, the ruined life cares naught for the money. 

There is no teacher of Japanese poetry. (" The poet is born, not 
made.") 

Hearing is paradise ; seeing is hell. (Description v. reality.) 

When men become too old, they must obey the young. (Said es- 
pecially of the old nations, such as Japan and China ; they must, and 
ought to, accept the civilization of the younger Western nations.) 



512 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XV. 

THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 
(leaves from my journal.) 

March 4 th, 1871. — Arrived in Fukui. 

March 11th. — Went by invitation to the Han stable, which contains 
fifty horses. I selected a fine coal-black horse, which is to be mine 
during my stay in Fukui. His name is Green Willow, from his sup- 
ple and graceful form. He is gentle, and a perfect beauty. Other 
names of horses were Black Dragon, Willow Swamp, Typhoon, Thun- 
der-cloud, Arrow, Devil's Eye, Ink-stone, Earthquake, Ghost, etc. I took 
a long ride through the villages lying to the eastward, along the Ashi- 
wa (Winged -foot) Eiver. Crowds of people were waiting in each 
place to see the white foreigner. 

The dogs especially enjoy the excitement; my Mercury in bronze 
runs before my horse, clad in cuticle, socks, and waist-cloth, instead of 
winged cap and anklets. He is tattooed from neck to heels with red 
and blue dragons. Of his comrades, one has Yoshitsune's face and bust 
punctured on his skin. On the back of another, evidently in love, 
blushes and pouts a pretty maiden with blossom-garnished hair. The 
bettos, like other working -classes, form an hereditary guild. They 
are of very low social grade. The children speak of me as " to-jin " 
(Chinaman) ;* the grown-up people, as " i-jin " (foreign man) ; the sa- 
murai, as " guai-koku-jin " (outside-country man), and a few who know 
exactly, " the America-jin," or " Be-koku-jin." 



* For centuries Chinamen were the only foreigners of whom most Japanese 
children had heard or seen. So in Hanchow, China, the city over which Marco 
Polo was governor, where the Japanese regularly traded and a few resided, the 
Japanese were the only strangers the people there knew. When Rev. J. Liggins, 
an American missionary, first visited this city, the people called out after him, 
"Japanese! Japanese !" varying the cry from "Foreign devil," "Red-haired," 
etc., heard in other places. The Japanese lower classes do not indulge in the 
vile habit of calling foreigners abusive names, though baka (fool) is occasionally 
made use of. The American gentleman here referred to was the first Christian 
missionary in Japan in this century, residing at Nagasaki, where he, like all other 
foreigners, was called Oranda jin (Hollander). 



TEE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 513 

March 18tk. — Rode out to the gunpowder mills. We crossed a 
long bridge of about forty boats (funa-bashi), over a wide, swift river. 
The mills, in five buildings, with machinery, wholly of wood, and made 
by natives, are run by water-power. The establishment blew up only 
once, several years ago. Outside is an image of Buddha and a shrine 
in memory of the five men killed by the explosion. What a combina- 
tion — gunpowder and Buddhism ! The magazine stands among the 
hills near the city, defended by a lightning-rod. Echizen powder won 
a good reputation in Japan during the late civil war, especially at Wa- 
kamatsu and Hakodate. I also visited a cotton-seed oil-press of sim- 
ple construction, but very effective. The rifie factory is near the city, 
and has an American rifling and other machines, including one for 
weaving cloth. Most of them are Sasaki's purchases in New York. 

March 21st. — A grand matsuri (festival) is being held at the tem- 
ples, and the city is full of farmers and country folk. They have 
come to pray for good crops. I can usually distinguish a countryman 
from a citizen by the superior diameter of his eyes and mouth on be- 
holding the white foreigner. Some of the old ladies look at me piti- 
fully, so sorry that I am so bleached and pale, instead of the proper 
dark color of skin. 

March 29th. — Some of the Buddhist sects bury, others cremate. 
In Fukui, cremation is the usual rule. The cremarium has four fur- 
naces. Saw a funeral procession, and witnessed the ceremonies at the 
mortuary chapel by the priests of the Shin sect, in their canonical 
robes of gold, damask, and satin, with book, bell, and scores of candles. 
The corpse and cask, or coffin, were then set on the furnace. The 
flames under the corpse were lighted by a relative of the deceased. A 
sheet of flame instantly enveloped the body, making a shroud of fire, 
in which nothing revolting was visible. The reduction of the body 
of the deceased to ashes occupied nearly two hours. I witnessed most 
of it, at intervals. The soft parts were consumed and volatilized, and 
the skeleton left a glowing white mass of lime, and the skull a globe 
of live fire. I strolled off, toward the end of the process, over the 
mountain slopes, through the daimio's cemetery, where, in fine stone 
tombs, the fifteen princes of the house of Echizen are buried. 

Returning on the other side of the cremarium, I saw a great heap 
of skulls, bones, clothes, bowls, utensils, and other relics of the dead. 
It was the monument of a famine which ravaged Echizen some forty 
years ago, during which time the poor and the beggars died in such 
numbers that they could not be consumed or inhumed in the usual 



514 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

manner singly, but were cremated by scores on heaps of brush-wood. 
Railroads and improved means of intercommunication in the future 
will make great desolation by famine impossible. Nearer the house 
was a mound containing many thousand cubic feet of ashes and cal- 
cined bones, the refuse incineration of the furnaces during many gen- 
erations. It was " ashes to ashes," instead of " dust to dust." 

Passing in front of the house, two relatives were engaged in picking 
out with a piece of bamboo, and another of wood, the clean, hot white 
pieces of bone. I now understood the squeamishness, and even super- 
stition, of the people, who will on no account eat with a pair of chop- 
sticks one of which is of wood and the other of bamboo. Packed in 
a jar, the bones were then deposited in the family vault — the hollow 
pedestal of a large tombstone. The monuments are chiefly upright 
square shafts. Some are egg-shaped. Others, with a top having wings 
or eaves, are formed like a castle tower, or pagoda roof. Nearly all 
of them are inscribed with Buddhist texts and homio, or posthumous 
names. Among many handsome ones are several made to represent a 
tub of sake, evidently those of tapsters who once dispensed the popu- 
lar drink, and wished, even after death, to advertise the business as 
still sold by the family at the old stand. Fresh flowers are placed in 
the sockets cut into the pedestals of many of the tombs. Women are 
present here and there, engaged in cleansing the monuments of moss, 
lichens, or dust, or inserting camellias in the bamboo tubes which serve 
as bouquet-holders. Some are of the age of Old Mortality himself, 
but some of the young mortality were in the shape of rather pretty 
maidens. 

April 1st. — The prince gave a dinner at his "summer palace," 
which stands on the banks of the serpentine river. A glorious view 
of snowy Hakuzan, from breast to crown, is afforded on one side, and 
of the valley stretching to the sea on the other. The immense, swell- 
ing white sails of the junks appear as if in the fields, the course of the 
river being hidden by the vegetation. Through my interpreter, who 
was in his best mood, we had a long talk on politics native and for- 
eign, religion, and morals. The prince and his minister asked a great 
variety of questions about the government, people, laws, and customs of 
the United States, and invited unlimited expression of opinion. The 
prince informed me that the mikado had summoned a great council 
of the ex-daimids in Tokio to discuss national affairs, and that he 
would set out for the capital on the second day hence. 

April 12th. — By Dr. Hashimoto's invitation I attended the theatre. 



THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 515 

The house was crowded. The acting was fair. The play was full of 
love and murder, with many amusing incidents. A pretty woman of 
gentle blood loves a poor itinerant pipe mender and cleaner. Her fa- 
ther wishes her to marry the son of a nobleman. He succeeds in his 
purpose by means of a " go-between," who pretends to carry messages 
from the true lover to the duped girl. At the marriage ceremony, 
which is represented in detail on the stage, she lifts her silken hood, 
expecting to see her true love, but beholds her father's choice, whom 
she hates. She has to submit, and goes to housekeeping. Clandes- 
tine meeting of wife and old lover. Jealous husband detects para- 
mours. Murder of the guilty pair. The husband finds that the pipe- 
mender is his dear friend in humble disguise. Remorse. Commits 
hara-kiri. Finale. 

As the performances last all day, people bring their tea-pots and 
lunch-baskets. The interest centres in the bloody scene, when heads, 
trunks, blood, and limbs lie around the stage promiscuously. The de- 
liberate whetting of the sword with hone, dipper, bucket, and water 
in sight of the frantic guilty pair, the prolongation of the sharpening 
and the bloody scene to its possible limit of time — twenty minutes by 
the watch — make it seem very ludicrous to me, though the audience 
look on breathless. During this time all talking, eating, and attention 
to infants cease. The repeated attempts of the husband to screw his 
courage to the sticking-point, and thrust the dirk in his abdomen, ex- 
cite the loud laughter of the audience. The theatre is large, but of a 
rather primitive order of architecture, yet probably as good as some 
that Shakspeare played in. After the play, I went behind the scenes, 
and was politely shown the actors' wardrobe and dressing-rooms, and 
the assortment of wigs, heads, limbs, etc. Rice-chaff replaces sawdust 
in the shams used on the stage. 

As a rule, the better class of Japanese people do not attend the the- 
atres for moral reasons, and as examples to their children. The influ- 
ences of the stage are thought to be detrimental to virtue. It is cer- 
tain that the young girls become too much interested in the actors, 
and hence fathers do not allow their daughters to see the plays. The 
actors, however, are the idols of the lower classes. Women do not 
play on the stage, their parts being taken by men or boys. 

April 15th. — All through the city, the rapid mountain streams, 
from three to eight feet wide, are led between stone banks in the cen- 
tre of the streets. At certain hours of the day, the people wash their 
pots, pans, and dishes, and at others their clothes. The rising genera- 



516 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

tion enjoy the constant treat of wading, splashing, sailing boats, or 
making dams, water-falls, and miniature mills. The kennel also af- 
fords a theatre for many a domestic drama, in which the chief actors 
are a soused baby and a frightened mother. While walking out to-day, 
one of the little girls who knew me, and had long ceased to feel afraid 
of me, came running along the edge of the water, crying, " To jin sanf 
To jin san /" (Mr. Foreigner ! Mr. Foreigner !) Not noticing the famil- 
iar cry, I suddenly heard a splash behind me, and, turning round, the 
child had disappeared. The water was rather deep at the point of 
immersion, and I managed, after much difficulty, to fish up the strug- 
gling child, and hand the dripping darling to her mother, who imme- 
diately ejaculated an " Aru beki " (Served you right) to her offspring, 
and, with a profound bow, an Arigato (Thank you) to the rescuer. 

May 1st. — During the past month I have made many excursions 
on horseback through the country round, staying overnight at the vil- 
lage inns. Sasaki and Iwabuchi have been my companions. I have 
seen the paper manufactories, oil-presses, the sake breweries, soy-vats, 
iron-foundries, and smelting - furnaces. I have entered the copper 
mines of Ono, and " prospected " the coal region, from which the coal 
I burn in my Peekskill stove comes. 

While on one trip, as I was leading my horse, Green Willow, down 
a steep slope, being close behind Sasaki's horse, well-named Devil's 
Eye, the vicious brute, after squinting sideways at me, and seeing his 
opportunity, threw out his left hind hoof and kicked me. The soft 
part between the fetlock and hoof struck just above my knee, giving 
me a shock, but doing no serious injury. His hoof would have broken 
my leg. The incident has served to warp and prejudice my judgment 
of Japanese horses in general. I can not praise them highly; but 
Green Willow is my ideal of a noble animal. 

The pack-horses, which I see daily, amuse me. They are ungainly, 
unkempt brutes, fed on the cheapest food. They carry about eight 
hundred pounds at a load. Of their moral character I can not speak 
in high terms. When led or driven tandem, or following each other 
in Indian file, these equine cannibals indulge in the vicious habit of 
pasturing on the haunches of the animal in front of them. This graz- 
ing process usually results in lively kicks, to the detriment of the teeth 
or chest of the offender, and the demoralization of the whole line. 

May 2d. — The farmers are busy making seed-beds for the rice, and 
in hoeing up their fields. The valleys are full of flowers. The snow 
has melted from all the mountains except Hakuzan. 



THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 517 

May 3d. — The presents I daily receive from my students and the 
officials are very varied. My table is not left unadorned for a single 
day. A leg of venison or wild-boar meat, a duck netted, or a goose 
shot in hunting ; a fine fish, a box of eggs, a hamper full of pears or 
oranges, a bouquet of flowers, a piece of porcelain or lacquered work, 
a small carved ivory nitsuki or bronze piece, a book, pictures, speci- 
mens of paper, a box of sponge-cake, sugar-jelly, or sweet-potato cus- 
tard, a tray of persimmons, candies, silk in napkins, rolls of various 
sizes, curiosities of all sorts, come to me. Every thing is daintily 
wrapped in red and white cord, with the nosu, or ceremonial folded 
paper, symbolizing friendship. The exquisite jointure and delicate 
grain of the wood of the boxes in which the cake, etc., are cased cause 
almost a pain when I throw them away. " Chenkey " and Obun get 
the candy and sweetmeats. The gifts are not generally of much 
value, but they show the sympathy and kindly nature of the people. 




What follows a Meal on Horse-flesh. 



Many of these offerings of friendship come from strangers. Many of 
the mothers and fathers of my students have called in person to thank 
me. After profound bows, head and knee on the floor, they offer the 
present, usually carried by their servant, saying, " This is a very mean 
thing to offer you, but I trust you will accept it for friendship's sake." 
The ladies, especially the old ones, are very talkative and friendly. I 
never fall on all fours before a man, but I frequently polish my fore- 
head on the floor when a lady does the same for me. A photograph 
album interests them exceedingly, and gives occasion for many ques- 
tions. 



518 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

I find my students surprisingly eager and earnest in school. They 
learn fast, and study hard. When important or striking chemical ex- 
periments are made, the large lecture-room is crowded by officials as 
well as students. I spend six hours daily in the school. In the even- 
ing, at my house, I have special classes of young men, doctors, teach- 
ers, and a circle of citizens, who listen to talks or lectures on various 
subjects. My plan is to take a good text - book and explain, by talk- 
ing, the use of maps, charts, diagrams, and the blackboard, allowing the 
auditors to ask questions freely at intervals. Physical and descriptive 
geography, geology, chemistry, physiology, microscopy, moral science, 
the science of government, the history of European countries, the 
various arts and manufactures, our social system, and, for those who 
wish it, a minority, the Bible and religion of Jesus Christ, are thus 
treated of — superficially, indeed, but, to a sufficiently encouraging ex- 
tent, effectively, as is proved by the eager attention, note-taking, and 
intelligent questionings. I find many of them well versed in those 
questions for time and eternity which have been the conflict of ages. 
Many of my nocturnal auditors are middle-aged, and a few old men. 
My interpreter is usually able to second me, though I have often to 
prime him in the afternoon for the discharges of the evening.* 

May 3d. — I have been to see the fan-makers to-day. Kioto, Nagoya, 
and Tokio are the places most noted for the quality and quantity 
manufactured, but Fukui has a few shops where ogi (folding fans) and 
uchiwa (flat fans) are made. Again, I find that we foreigners do 
things upside down. With us, the large flat fans are for gentlemen's 
use, the folding fans for ladies'. In Japan, the gentleman carries at 
all times, except in winter, the ogi in his girdle, bosom, under his col- 
lar, or, in his merry mood, under his cue. It is a dire breach of eti- 
quette to appear in the street with a flat fan, which is almost exclu- 
sively used by the Japanese women. Millions of these fans are being 
made for the foreign market, and sold in Europe and America. They 
are cheap editions of art in the land of the gods, for all the world to 
look at. They will probably do more to advertise Japan abroad than 
any other means. 

As the principles of centralized capital, immense manufactories, and 
division of labor are as yet scarcely known in Japan, these fans, like 
other articles of art and handiwork, will be made by tens of thou- 



* These evening seances, though intermitted during the hot weather, were con- 
tinued until I left Fukui. 



THE LAST TEAR OF FEUDALISM. 



519 



sands of independent workers all over the country. The Fukuians 
make fans of all sorts, and for all purposes : of water-proof paper for 
dipping in water — a sort of vaporizer for making extra coolness on 
the face by evaporation ; of stout paper for grain-winnows, charcoal 
fire-blowers, or for dust-pans ; double-winged fans, for the judges at 
wrestling- matches; gorgeous colored and gilt fans for the dancing* 
girl, who makes one a part of herself in her graceful motion and 
classic pose ; for the juggler, who will make a butterfly of paper flut- 
ter up the edge of a sword. The splitting of the bamboo, the folding 
or pasting of the paper by the girls, the artist's work, the finishing and 
packing, are all done before my eyes. The manifold uses and etiquette 
of the fan I am gradually learning. 




Kioto Fan-makers. 

I find a rack of silver hooks or a tubular fan-holder in every house, 
in which are several of these implements of refreshment, which are at 
once offered to the visitor on his arrival. I have received a stack of 
fans inscribed with poetry, congratulations, or with maps, statistical 
tables, pictures of famous places, classic quotations, or useful informa- 
tion of varied nature. Many depict life, manners, architecture, etc., 
in Yokohama and in Europe. They are thus the educators of the 
public. Many of the Fukui gentlemen have collections of fans with 
famous inscriptions or autographs, or pictures from noted artists. A 
scholar or author, in giving a party to his literary friends, has a num- 



520 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ber of ogi ready for adornment ; and people often exchange fans as 
we do photographs. When I go into a strange house, especially in 
my trips to villages where the foreigner creates a sensation, I spend 
the whole evening writing in English on fans for my host, his wife, 
daughters, and friends. How far the excerpts from Shakspeare, Mil- 
ton, or Longfellow may be appreciated or understood, I can not say. 

To make the pictures for common flat fans, the design is drawn by 
the artist on thin paper. This is pasted on a slab of cherry-wood and 
engraved. The pictures are printed by laying the fan -paper flat on 
the block and pressing it smooth. In the same manner, the Japanese 
have printed books for centuries. The various colors are put on, 
with sometimes as many as twenty blocks. This art is chromo-xy- 
lography, instead of chromo - lithography. The picture papers, some- 
times with musk or other perfumes laid between them, are then pasted 
on the frame. The costly gold -lacquered, ivory- handled, and inlaid 
fans are made in Tokio and Ki5to. 

May 4th. — The national festival in honor of the soldiers slain during 
the civil war of 1868-70 was celebrated. This is "Decoration Day." 
The whole city kept holiday. In the morning a regiment of soldiers 
paraded in nondescript dress, a hybrid of native costume and foreign 
clothes, civil, military, and neither. Straw sandals and high boots, tight 
trowsers and the hakama petticoats, caps, wide -brimmed hats, cha- 
peaux, and bare heads, top -knots with shaven scalps, and hair cut in 
foreign fashion, alternated confusedly. The variety made a burlesque 
that caused the only American spectator to almost crush his teeth in 
trying to choke down a laugh. Falstaff's regiment and the " Mulligan 
Guards " of popular song were utterly eclipsed. 

Tens of thousands of people visited the cemetery called Sho Kon 
Sha (Soul-beckoning Rest), on the top of Atago yama. Many brought 
flowers to deck the tombs. In the afternoon, while I was there, the 
ladies of the prince's household were present, in their gorgeously em- 
broidered silk gowns and girdles. Their hair was dressed in the fan- 
like coiffure characteristic of the maids of honor in the households of 
the Kioto court nobles. One of them afterward sent me as presents, 
through the prince's physician, some very pretty specimens of needle- 
work from her own tapering fingers. They consisted of a lady's white 
satin letter-case, with a billet-doux folded up in it — only it was blank, 
though the day was not the 1st of April. The other gifts were a 
"currency -holder," or small paper-money wallet, in orange-yellow 
satin, bound in green and gold thread damask ; a green silk book- 



THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 521 

mark, with autumn leaves painted on it ; a case for holding chopsticks 
of many-shaded purple silk crape, and one or two other pretty conceits 
in silk, each a poem to the eye. These I put with the other memen- 
toes of the handiwork of the sisters of students, or the daughters of 
the officials, which I have received. 

In the afternoon, thousands of people in their gala dress, and with 
substantial refreshments and drinkables, gathered to witness the dis- 
play of fire-works sent up from the parade-ground. The pyrotechnic 
pieces, in shape like a small paint-keg, were put in an immense upright 
cannon or mortar made of a stout wooden tube like a tree-trunk, bound 
with strong bamboo hoops. Exploding far up in air, the colors being 
white, black, red, and yellow, the resulting "fire -flowers" were inter- 
esting or comical. An old woman hobbled on a cane; an old man 
smoked a pipe whence issued a fox ; a tea-kettle evolved a badger ; a 
cuttle - fish sailed, with outspread suckers, in mid - air ; a cat ran after 
mice ; a peach blossomed into a baby ; Pussy, with a mouse (" rat's 
baby") in her mouth, seemed to tread the air; a hideous dragon 
spouted fire ; serpents ran after each other ; a monkey blew soap-bub- 
bles. These and other mid-air conceits amused both the little children 
and those of larger growth. The exhibition closed at dark. Every one 
was happy. A few were tipsy ; but I saw no disorder. I had a seat in 
the family party of Mr. Nagasaki, whose chubby children and wife were 
present, making a lively circle around the picnic-box and tiny dishes. 

May 13th. — Engaged a river-boat, with four stout rowers and pole- 
men, and made a trip down the river to the sea. Spent from Satur- 
day till Monday at Mikuni, the sea-port of Fukui, as the guest of the 
chief tea -merchant of the place, whose plantations extend over the 
hills for many acres. He sends seventy-five thousand dollars' worth 
of tea to Yokohama annually. The ocean scenery here is magnificent 
beyond description. A splendid natural sea-wall of columnar trap re- 
minded me of the " Giant's Causeway." A lacquer-artist in Fukui has 
made sketches of the rock and shore scenery here, and is now making 
me a handsome stand for my glass-sponges (Hyalonerna mirabilis). It 
will have a scene from Mikuni on it. Fleets of fishing-boats were out 
on the blue waters. The diving-girls, like mermaids, exhibited their 
pluck and skill by diving many fathoms down in the deep water of 
the rocky recesses ; or, strapping a basket on their backs, they swam 
far out, knife in hand, to reap a submarine harvest from the rocks. 
They returned in a half-hour, heavily laden with awabi (sea-ears) and 
spiral univalves. These they afterward roasted in their own shells, 



522 



THE MIKADO'S EMriBE. 



and offered us. At the merchant's home, decked in their best robes 
and coifs, they danced and sung their wild fisher's songs for us. In 
the village I saw a famous sculptor in wood, who was carving a horse 
in life size for a Shinto shrine. Though faulty in some details of 
anatomy, the fire and grace of motion were wonderfully life-like. In 
Fukui, the week before, I had seen an artist dip his long, little finger- 
nail in ink and draw figures on a fan, and with astonishing rapidity 
furnished a very spirited design of a horse in motion, after Hokusai's 
style, with but seven strokes, and a few sweeps of a wide brush for 
the mane and tail. 




Seven-stroke Sketch. Wild Horse of Nambu. 

May \§th. — By orders received to-day from the Central Govern- 
ment of Tokio, two students are to be chosen from each han, and sent 
abroad to study. This will enable several hundred young men to see 
and live in Europe and America. It is also a political move to unite 
all parts of the empire together, and show even the people of the late- 
ly rebellious portions that they are to partake of the national benefits. 
In our han, one is to be elected by the officers and one by myself. 



THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 523 

The choice of the former is Yamaoka Jiro.* I chose from a dozen 
or more, equally worthy, Kinamera Shirato.f Over four hundred stu- 
dents will embark for America during this and the following month. 

The rice -fields of the whole country are now lakes of rich mud- 
pulp, the paradise of polliwigs. An expanse of an exquisite light 
green covers many parts of the valley. All the rice is transplanted, 
having been first sown broadcast in seed-beds, which are under water. 
The husbandman casts his bread upon the waters. He will find it, 
after many summer days, in November. Picnic parties make the 
woods on Atago yama lively with music, fun, feasting, and merry laugh- 
ter. The powdered girls in the archery galleries and tea-houses are 
reaping a harvest of small change. Every one enjoys the fine weather. 

May 20th. — Four students arrived from Higo to-day, having come 
here to study, on the recommendation of my former pupil in America, 
Numagawa, a young samurai of Kumamoto. One I call " Bearded 
Higo," for he wears what is rare in Japan, a full beard. The Higo 
family is connected by marriage with the house of Echizen. My 
prince's beautiful wife is a Higo princess. Her face is of a perfect 
Yamato type. 

July 4th. — Celebrated the " glorious Fourth " to-day by raising the 
American flag, and starting a new class in the school, composed of the 
brightest boys of the Sho G-akko, or secondary school. Mail arrived 
from home, eight weeks from Philadelphia. 

During the past month, a great many religious festivals and proces- 
sions have been held. I attended a Buddhist sermon in the temple ; a 
prayer-service in a private house ; a grand concert of music by twenty- 
four bonzes in full sacerdotal costume, with wind and string instru- 
ments, in the monastery ; and several private entertainments. 

I find that both in houses and at picnics screens are an important 
article of furniture, and behind these couples who have whispering to 
do may enjoy a tete-a-tete undisturbed. Besides ornament, they serve 
the purpose of alcoves or bay-windows for temporary privacy. In the 
cut, the words " sasame goto " (whispering) signify that something confi- 
dential is being told. Whether the pair are lovers is not certain, though 
the expression on the face of the man is that of a love-lorn swain ; and 
the young lady, whose coiffure betokens that she is in the matrimo- 

* He studied at Princeton, Troy, and Columbia School of Mines, in New York, 
and is now an officer in the Department of Education. 

t He studied at Albany and Hoboken, and is now in the Imperial Govern- 
ment's service. 



524 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

nial market, seems to be paying very close attention, as her face, and 
hands drawn within her sleeve and to her neck, indicate. 

July 5 th. — At a religious service in the hall of the castle, a band 
of sacred Shinto musicians played the national hymn, many centuries 
old, the strangest and most weird system of sounds I ever heard. 
Twelve Shinto priests, in white robes, offered up the fruits of the sea- 
son, and solemnly read prayers written for the occasion. Over one 




Whispering behind the Screen, 
thousand officials, in swords and ceremonial robes of hempen and silk 
cloth (kami-shimo), were present. Their salutations to each other, 
after the exercises, were fearful to behold. Much breath was sucked, 
exalted honorifics indulged in, congratulations spoken, and excrucia- 
ting politeness manifested. 

To all these private or official entertainments I receive very polite- 
ly worded written invitations. On the day set apart in honor of Jim- 
mu Tenno, all the officials, according to rank, assembled, in robes of 
ceremony, in the han-cho, and each, as his name was called, advanced 
to a stone lavatory, washed his hands, and offered a prayer to the gods 
for the prosperity of the empire. I was especially invited to attend, 
and given a seat of honor. Later, in answer to questions about great 
men, I took occasion to explain that the reverence of the American 
people for Washington was for his pure and high moral character as 
a man, and not as a military hero. He was not as Jimmu (Spirit of 
War). Some Japanese imagine that the Americans worship Wash- 
ington as a god. This, I showed, was a mistake. Several of the peo- 
ple here have his picture in their houses.* 

* Three separate translations of Irving' s" Life of Washington," one a scholar- 
ly production, have been made into Japanese, and several sketches of his life. 



THE LAST TEAR OF FEUDALISM. 525 

July 6th. — A typhoon (tai-fu) of frightful violence passed over the 
city last night. In the morning, the destruction of fences, roofs, and 
houses was awful to behold. My gardens of American flowers and 
vegetables are ruined by the sharp shingles, torn and hurled from the 
great roof by hundreds, as though by a tormentum or catapult. I 
learn that hundreds of junks have been wrecked, and lives lost along 
the coast. 




Samurai, in Kami-shimo Dress, saluting. 

July 11th. — The prince returned from Tokio to-day. Evidently, 
something more is in the political wind. The faces of the samurai 
and officials wear a solemn expression — " sicklied o'er with the pale 
cast of thought." What can it be? Some coming event is casting 
its shadow before. 

July 16th. — This morning I met a Buddhist priest carrying a Yam 
kee lamp and a can of Pennsylvania petroleum to the monastery. It 
seemed a symbol of more light. A man was drowned in the river 
to-day. The people say a kappa dragged him down. 

To-day I saw a snake-charmer exhibit. A tortoise-tamer made his 
brood perform tricks : stand up on hind legs, march in various direc- 
tions, advance, retreat, stop, and climb over each other, at the tap of a 
drum. A great many other tricks, such as breaking a cobble-stone 
with the fist, walking on the edge of a sword and then swallowing it, 
feats of strength, astonishing poises, jugglery, etc., were performed at 
the grand fair and show on the river flats. At night, the gayly illu- 
minated refreshment booths and boats made the strand and river as 
lively as the imagination could well conceive. At the matsuri in hon- 
or of the patron deity of the city, the procession of people was proba- 

34 



526 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

bly four or five miles long. All the singing-girls, actors, guilds, trades 
monasteries, and many temples were represented. Few or no samurai 
were in the procession. Immense images of idols were dragged by 
the crowds; and the historic and legendary personages and tableaux 
were largely represented. It was a scene of wild mirth, drunkenness, 
and paganism. 

July 18th. — The thunder-bolt has fallen ! The political earthquake 
has shaken Japan to its centre. Its effects are very visible here in 
Fukui. Intense excitement reigns in the homes of the samurai of the 
city to-day. I hear that some of them are threatening to kill Mitsiio- 
ka, who receives income for meritorious services in 1868, and who has 
long been the exponent of reform and of national progress in Fukui. 

At ten o'clock this morning, a messenger from Tokio arrived at the 
han-cho. Suddenly there was a commotion in the school. All the 
native teachers and officials were summoned to the directors' room. 
I saw them a few minutes afterward. Pale faces and excited nerves 
were in the majority. The manner in which some of them strode to 
the door, thrust their swords into their belts, stepped into their clogs, 
and set off with flowing garments and silk coat-tails flapping to the 
leeward, was quite theatrical, and just like the pictures in Japanese 
books. 

An imperial proclamation just received orders that the hereditary 
incomes of the samurai be reduced, all sinecure offices abolished, and 
the salaries thereto attached turned over to the imperial treasury. 
The number of officials is to be reduced to the lowest minimum. 
The property of the han is to become that of the Imperial Govern- 
ment. The Fukui han is to be converted into a ken, or prefecture, of 
the Central Government. All officials are to be appointed direct from 
Tokio. 

The change affects me for the better. Hitherto the school direct- 
orate consisted of fourteen officers. " With too many sailors, the 
boat runs up a hill." There are now only four. An official from the 
han-cho waited upon me to announce that my four guards and eight 
gate-keepers are dismissed from office. I shall henceforth have but 
two gate-keepers. The local officials of Fukui are to be reduced from 
Jive hundred to seventy. The incubus of yakuninerie is being thrown 
off. Japan's greatest curse for ages has been an excess of officials and 
lazy rice-eaters who do not work. Sindbad has shaken off the Old 
Man of the Sea. Hurra for the New Japan ! 

July \§th. — In the school to-day, the absence of officials, and con- 



THE LAST TEAR OF FEUDALISM. 527 

sequently of fuss and interruption, in my department is remarkable. 
The directors' room is vacant. It is like the " banquet-hall deserted." 
In the ken-cho, the quorum is but a skeleton, compared with the fat 
body of the day before. The students tell me that some of the old 
men in the city are nearly crazy with anxiety : a few violent fellows 
still wish to assassinate Mitsiioka and the other imperialists, who have 
been working to bring this state of things about. The respectable 
samurai, however, and the men of weight and influence, almost unani- 
mously approve of the mikado's order. They say it is a necessity, 
not for Fukui, but for the nation, and that the altered national condi- 
tion and the times require it. Some of them talk exultingly about the 
future of Japan. They say, " Now Japan will take a position among 
the nations like your country and England." 

July 25th. — This afternoon, one of the ken officials, Mr. Tsutsumi, 
who had just come from Tokio, called to see me. He spoke so clear- 
ly and distinctly that I understood his Japanese without calling in my 
interpreter. He bore a message from Mr. Katsu Awa. An American 
teacher is desired for the school at Shidzuoka, in Suruga. In his let- 
ter, Mr. Katsu said, " I desire a professional gentleman, regularly edu- 
cated, not a mechanic or clerk who has taken to teaching to pick up 
a living ; and, if possible, a graduate of the same school as yourself." 
Evidently, Mr. Katsu understands the difference between a teacher and 
a " teacher." 

I immediately wrote to my former classmate and fellow-traveler in 
Europe, Edward Warren Clark, A.M., offering him the position.* 

August 10th. — The prince (having returned from Tokio), his cham- 
berlain, and one karo dined with me to-day. In the morning, two of 
his pages, accompanied by servants, came to my house, bringing pres- 
ents. They consisted of the products of Echizen, rolls of fine paper, 
muslin, and silk, a box of eggs and one of sponge-cake, an inlaid 
cake-box lacquered in several colors, a case of three rare painted fans, 
all tied in silk napkins with red-and-white cord. The prince had also 
brought for me from Iwakura Tomomi, now U Dai Jin (junior prime 
minister), an exquisitely beautiful gold-lacquered cabinet, adorned with 
sparrows and bamboo, cherry-blossoms, and variegated feathers. In 
one of the drawers were a number of perfumed fans of elegant man- 
ufacture. A letter from Mr. Iwakura accompanied the gift, begging 

* Mr. Clark accepted, arriving in Shidzuoka in November, and for over three 
years was an earnest and faithful teacher. He was in Shidzuoka two years, and 
in Tokio, in the Imperial College, one year. 



528 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



my acceptance as a token of his regard for my care and instruction of 
his sons while in the United States. 

The prince laid aside his icy dignity as the dinner proceeded, after 
which conversation was prolonged for an hour or two, the guests pro- 
ducing their pipes, filling and emptying a great many of the tiny sil- 
ver bowls. On the prince rising to depart, his ministers fell down on 
hands and knees until Matsudaira had reached the door, where his 
sandal and lantern bearers were awaiting his appearance. Then the 
officers rose and accompanied him to his norimono. One of the forty- 
five million princes of the United States, standing erect, shook hands 
with the nobleman, bid him good-bye, and invited him to come again. 
In accordance with native etiquette, the guests send some trifling 
token of acknowledgment the day after an entertainment — eggs, 
sponge-cake, a fish, or other gift — as a sort of "return call." On 
meeting, the favored one salutes his late host, saying, "Sendatte ariga- 
to " (" Thank you for your kindness received a few days ago "). 

August 15th. — The thermometer has ranged from 95° to 99° at 
3 p.m. during several days of last week. All Fukui goes to sleep in 
the middle of the day. I occasionally walk out in the early after- 
noon, seeing scores of houses and shops open, but perfectly quiet, 
their inmates, often rotund sylphs, as in Hokusai's sketch, being stretch- 




The Siesta. 



ed on the floor asleep, not always in the most graceful position. 
There are very few flies to trouble them. Japan seems to be singu- 
larly free from these pests. At night, mosquitoes are numerous, hun- 
gry, and of good size. The people are well provided with mosquito- 
nets, which are large, like the room itself, and made to fit it. I find 
that the leap-year hint of a Japanese widow to a favored suitor which 
makes him happy is, that " her mosquito-net is too large." The poor 
folks smoke the pests out. It is curious that the Japanese word for 
mosquito (ka) and an interrogation-point (ka) is the same. 

At night the common people assemble in rings of from a score to 



THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 529 

a hundred, and dance in slow measure, clapping hands and singing. 
The young folks especially, of both sexes, like this fun. 

A Japanese city during hot weather affords excellent opportunities 
for the study of breathing statuary. The laborers often strip to the 
loin-cloth, the women to the waist. Even the young girls and maid- 
ens just rounding into perfection of form often sit half nude ; think- 
ing it no desecration to expose the body from the waist up. They 
seem to be utterly unaware of any impropriety. Certainly they are 
innocent in their own eyes. Is the Japanese virgin "an Eve before 
the fall?" 

Among the games played in public is da.Jciu (polo), which is very 
ancient in Japan. An immense crowd of spectators, prince, princess, 
lords and ladies, gentlemen, people, priests and students, gathered in- 
side the riding course to see the game of " dakiu " played. I had one 
of the best seats given me in the pavilion occupied by the daimio 
and his gentlemen in waiting. Every body was dressed handsomely, 
the weather perfect, the scene animating. Judges and scorers were in 
ceremonial dress. 

At the signal, given by a tap of a bell, twelve players mounted. 
At the next, they rode into the lists, saluted the prince and judges, 
and proceeded to the end of the course, ranging themselves in Indian 
file, with their horses' heads to the wickets, which were two bamboo 
holes with a cord across them, about ten feet from the ground. 

The rival parties, six players in each, called themselves the Genji 
and the Heike. The Grenji wore white, the Heike red hats, accord- 
ing to the colors of the ancient flags. Each player had a long bam- 
boo stick (" spoon ") like a shepherd's crook, with net-work of cord. 
On the ground, in two rows at the side, and extending in front of the 
riders, were seventy -two red and white balls. The whites were to 
throw the red balls over and through the wicket, the reds to throw the 
whites. Balls going over the lists outside the wickets were tossed 
back again. Each party was to oppose the other. The red flag 
waved on the right wicket-pole, the white on the left. 

At the signal, given by a wave of the judge's fan, both parties rode 
nimbly up the lists, picking up the balls, and flinging them over the 
wickets, if they could. The leaders having reached the wickets, and 
a number of balls having been thrown over, and others scattered over 
the field, turned back to oppose each other, and then the game grew 
intensely exciting. It was shinny on horseback. Skillful handling of 
the horse, as well as of the crook, was necessary. Three riders were 



530 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



dismounted. Occasionally 
a man was hurt. The col- 
Wt ^ /f==z '~ ~ ^^^ r lision of excited animals 

f^S / ^^ - 81 against each other was fre- 

^i WKImm -dBF" quent. The balls flew back- 

ward and forward, up and 
down. Finally, there was 
but one ball left. Twelve 
men and horses contested 
for it. The Heike won the 
first game, having thrown 
all the thirty-six white balls 
over their wicket, while 
the Genji had three red 
balls left on the ground. 
Three games were played, 
the Genji winning two. 
The prizes, awarded by the 
prince, were a roll of silk, 
a helmet, a porcelain vase, 
and autograph scrolls. 

August 28th. — I have 
returned from a trip to 
Hakuzan (Shiro yama, 
White Mountain) and 
Kaga. Emori and Iwa- 
buchi accompanied me. I 
spent eight days among 
the mountains, being the 
first foreigner who has ever 
ascended Hakuzan. It is 
nine thousand three hun- 
dred and twenty feet high 
by imperfect method of 
measurement, with only a 
thermometer. At any rate, 
the surmise of Humboldt, 
and even the Japanese of 
this coast, that Hakuzan is higher than Fuji, is disposed of. At the 
top was a Buddhist shrine, strongly built and handsomely furnished. 




TEE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 



531 



I spent the night in a hut near the summit, in which some forty 
pilgrims slept besides my two servants. The scenery from the edge 
of the extinct crater, which was full of snow and water, was grand ; 
but the mountain torrents, water -falls, and vistas lower down afford- 
ed the greatest pleasure. I passed villages full of girls reeling silk. 
The crops of tobacco, indigo, hemp, rice, etc., promise to be lux- 
uriant. In the towns dense crowds lined the streets to see the 
foreigner. At the hotels the dainty Emori, in settling bills, never 
handles money, but folds the sum neatly in white paper, and ties 
it with the ceremonial red-and- white cord, and lays it on a tray, de- 
parting with many bows. I noticed many ja-kago ("snake-baskets"), 




Rope-dikes, or " Snake-baskets 



or ropes of stones, used as piers and jetties to preserve river -banks 
from being washed away by flood or current. They are of split bam- 
boo, plaited in cylindrical nets, from ten to one hundred feet long, the 
meshes being just the size to retain large pebbles. They are cheap, 
durable, and efficient. In some parts of Japan, notably along the To- 
kaido, there are miles of embankments formed by them. 

At Daishoji a number of exiled " Christians " from Urakami, near 
Nagasaki, are confined. I was not allowed to see them. At the sul- 
phur baths of Yamanaka, a noted watering-place, were a number of no- 
blemen with their families. I also visited Sabae, Katsuyama, Ono, Ma- 
ruoka, all large towns, in Echizen. At Sabae we were entertained in 
splendid style at the temple hostelry. The entire country is very rich 
in historical, legendary, mythic, and holy associations, and my enjoy- 



532 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



ment was intense throughout. The Daimio of Mariioka is a descend 
ant of the Daimio of Hizen, friend of the Jesuits in the sixteenth cent- 
ury. 

September SOth. — My new "foreign" house was finished some days 
ago. It was first visited by the prince and his officers, who enjoyed a 
luncheon, a social smoke, and a view of the mountains from the veran- 
da. They wished to study a foreign house at leisure. The scenery 




My House in Fnkui. 

of the river, up the valley — the mountains to the west and south, snow- 
clad Hakuzan to the north, the city and castle, towers, moats, and walls 
— is very fine. Then, for three days, by official permission, the house 
was thrown open to public inspection. People from the city and 
country folks from afar flocked in crowds to see how mankind in 



THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 533 

"civilized countries" live. The refreshment -venders, the men who 
checked clogs, sandals, and umbrellas, did a thriving business. Proba- 
bly twenty thousand people have inspected my new house. 

After the last naruhodo (Well, I never ! Is it possible !) was ejacu- 
lated, I took possession. The materials of seasoned wood, stone chim- 
neys, tiled roof, wall-paper, etc., are of the best. American hardware, 
grates, mantel-pieces, glass windows, wardrobes, etc., make a cozy and 
comfortable dwelling for the inmate, as well as a standing educator of 
the native public* Extension - table, chairs, book -cases, and other 
furniture were constructed by cabinet-makers in Fukui, of sound old 
wood, chiefly keyaki. An exact reproduction of the writing-desk of 
Charles Dickens left with " the empty chair " at Gadshill, made after a 
picture in The London Illustrated News, came from the same skillful 
hands, and now adorns my study. 

To-morrow Fukui bids farewell to feudalism. On the next day we 
shall be in a province without a prince. The era of loyalty is passed. 
The era of patriotism has come. To-day the prince sent me a note 
of farewell, accompanied by a present of choice viands in a picnic box, 
gold-lacquered in shell-fish designs, which he begged me to accept as a 
parting token of regard. He also requested my presence in the main 
hall of the castle, at the valedictory ceremonies prior to his departure 
to Tokio, where he is to retire to private life. This evening his six 
ministers dined with me, the prince being absent on account of a 
death in his household. 

October 1st. — From an early hour this morning, the samurai in kami- 



* It was originally intended to build four houses — one for the physician, one 
for the English teacher, one for the military instructor, and one for myself. The 
abolition of feudalism and the centralization of the government changed the en- 
tire scheme. Mr. Alfred Lucy, an English gentleman, who had been my co-labor- 
er for about two months, left Fukui in June, and went to Awomori, in Rikuoku, 
to introduce English methods of agriculture and stock-raising. The physician 
never reached our feudal capital. Lieutenant Brinckley, of the Tenth English 
Regiment, was retained in Tokio by the Imperial Government. What was loss to 
Fukui became immense gain to all Japanese and English-speaking people who 
wish to study the language of the other. The Go-Gaku Hitori Annai, three vol- 
umes, one thousand pages, or "Guide to Self-instruction in the Language," by 
Mr. Brinckley, English officer of artillery, printed by the Insho Kiyoku, 1875, is, 
I believe, the first original work written in the Japanese language by a foreigner. 
It is a masterpiece of scholarship. There are many idioms in its copious lists of 
which Mr. Brinckley may be called the discoverer. Its issue marks a new era of 
the knowledge of English in Japan, and of Japanese by foreigners. After I left 
Fukui, Mr. E. Mudgett, of Napa, California, and Mr. M. N.Wyckoff, A.M., a grad- 
uate of Rutgers College, continued the instruction in English and the sciences. 



534 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

shimo (ceremonial dress) have been preparing for the farewell, and 
have been assembling in the castle. I went over to the main hall at 
nine o'clock. I shall never forget the impressive scene. All the slid- 
ing paper partitions separating the rooms were removed, making one 
vast area of matting. Arranged in the order of their rank, each in 
his starched robes of ceremony, with shaven-crown, and gun-hammer 
top-knot, with hands clasped on the hilt of his sword resting upright 
before him as he sat on his knees, were the three thousand samurai 
of the Fukui clan. Those bowed heads were busy with the thought 
born of the significance of the scene. It was more than a farewell to 
their feudal lord. It was the solemn burial of the institutions under 
which their fathers had lived for seven hundred years. Each face 
seemed to wear a far-away expression, as if their eyes were looking 
into the past, or striving to probe an uncertain future. 

I fancied I read their thoughts. The sword is the soul of the samu- 
rai, the samurai the soul of Japan. Is the one to be ungirt from its 
place of honor, to be thrown aside as a useless tool, to make way for 
the ink-pot and the ledger of the merchant? Is the samurai to be- 
come less than the trader ? Is honor to be reckoned less than money ? 
Is the spirit of Japan to be abased to the level of the sordid foreign- 
ers who are draining the wealth of Japan ? Our children, too, what is 
to become of them ? Must they labor and toil, and earn their own 
bread? What are we to do when our hereditary pensions are stop- 
ped, or cut down to a beggar's pittance? Must we, whose fathers 
were glorious knights and warriors, and whose blood and spirit we 
inherit, be mingled hopelessly in the common herd? Must we, who 
would starve in honorable poverty rather than marry one of our 
daughters to a trader, now defile our familv line to save our lives and 
fill our stomachs ? What is the future to bring us ? 

These seemed to be the thoughts that shadowed that sea of dark 
faces of waiting vassals. One could have heard a pin drop after the 
hush that announced the coming of the daimio. 

Matsudaira Mochiake, late Lord of Echizen, and feudal head of the 
Fukui clan, who was to-morrow to be a private nobleman, now ad- 
vanced down the wide corridor to the main hall. He was a stern- 
visaged man of perhaps thirty-five years of age. He was dressed in 
purple satin hakama, with inner robe of white satin, and outer coat of 
silk crape of a dark slate hue, embroidered on sleeve, back, and breast 
with the Tokugawa crest. In his girdle was thrust the usual side- 
arm, a wakizashi, or dirk, the hilt of which was a carved and frosted 



THE LAST YEAR OF FEUDALISM. 535 

mass of solid gold. His feet, cased in white socks, moved noiselessly 
over the matting. As he passed, every head was bowed, every sword 
laid prone to the right, and Matsudaira, with deep but unexpressed 
emotion, advanced amidst the ranks of his followers to the centre of 
the main hall. There, in a brief and noble address, read by his chief 
minister, the history of the clan and of their relations as lord and vas- 
sals, the causes which had led to the revolution of 1868, the results of 
which had restored the imperial house to power, and the mikado's rea- 
sons for ordering the territorial princes to restore their fiefs, were 
tersely and eloquently recounted. In conclusion, he adjured all his 
followers to transfer their allegiance wholly to the mikado and the 
imperial house. Then, wishing them all success and prosperity in 
their new relations, and in their persons, their families, and their es- 
tates, in chaste and fitting language he bid his followers solemn fare- 
well. 

On behalf of the samurai, one of their number then read an ad- 
dress, expressive of their feelings, containing kindly references to the 
prince as their former lord, and declaring their purpose henceforth to 
be faithful subjects of the mikado and the imperial house. 

This terminated the ceremony. The ex-daimio and his ministers 
then left the castle hall, and he proceeded to the residence of the 
American instructor. I met and welcomed him, and he sat down for 
a few minutes. He thanked me cordially for my efforts to instruct 
the young men of Fukui, and invited me to visit him in Tokio. In re- 
turn, I expressed my indebtedness for his many kindnesses to me, and 
then, after the manner of American politeness and Japanese courtesy, 
we exchanged farewells. 

October 2d. — The whole city seems to be astir to-day. The streets 
are crowded with citizens in their best clothes, and thousands are in 
from the country. They have come to see their prince for the last 
time. It is a farewell gathering. Many hundreds of old men, wom- 
en, and children are weeping. A regiment of one thousand men es- 
cort him to Takefu, twelve miles off. A few faithful retainers, his 
physician Hashimoto, and his body-servants accompany him to To- 
kio. A similar scene to that of to-day has probably been witnessed 
in many castled cities in Japan during this month.* 



* In a few nans the people rebelled against the orders of the Imperial Govern- 
ment, refusing to let their prince depart; but in general every farewell and de- 
parture was sad, quiet, and decorous. 



536 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

December 1st. — Great changes have taken place in the city since 
the departure of the prince, and the change of the han (feudal tenure) 
into ken (prefecture of the Imperial Government). Most of the high 
officers have been called by the Imperial Government to Tokio. Mit- 
suoka is now mayor of Tokio. Ogasawara, Tsutsumi, and several oth- 
ers have been made officials of other hen. It is the policy of the gov- 
ernment to send the men of one ken to act as officers in another, and 
thus break up local prejudices. It is a grand idea. Sasaki Gonroku 
has been called to a position in the Department of Public Works. 
Many of the best teachers in the school have been given official places 
in the capital. My best friends and helpers have left Fukui ; and now 
my advanced students, their support at home being no longer suffi- 
cient, are leaving to seek their fortune in Yokohama or Tokio. My 
classes are being depleted. Fukui is no longer the capital of a prince. 
It is simply an inland city. I can not blame the young men for wish- 
ing to see the new life and civilization of the nation at the ports and 
capital, but my loneliness and sense of exile increase daily. Since the 
summer — so I am told — over seven hundred families have left Fukui. 
Tokio is making up in population the loss of Yedo in 1862, when the 
daimios withdrew. I have not over half of my best students left. 
The military school has been disbanded, and the gunpowder works 
and the rifle factory removed. Three companies of imperial troops, 
in uniform of French style, with the mikado's crest on their caps, and 
the national flag (a red sun in a white field) as their standard, now 
occupy the city barracks. The old local and feudal privileges are be- 
ing abolished. Taxes are being made uniform all over the country. 
The Buddhist theological school has been broken up by orders from 
Tokio. Shinto lecturers are endeavoring to convert the people to the 
old faith. All the Shinto temples which have been in any way influ- 
enced by Buddhism are being more vigorously purged and restored in 
pure Shinto style. The outer wall of the castle has been leveled, and 
the moat filled up. The gates have been sold for their stone, wood, 
and copper. Many old yashikis of ancient and once wealthy families 
have been torn down and converted into shops. The towns-people and 
shop-keepers are jubilant at getting a foot-hold on the sites hitherto 
reserved to samurai. Old armor, arrows, spears, flags, saddlery, dresses, 
norimonos, and all the paraphernalia of the old feudal days can now 
be bought dirt cheap. The prince's mansion has been demolished, 
and every thing left in it sold. I got from it a pair of bronze stir- 
rups and a marble model of Fuji. All the horses in the stables of the 




Wild Goose in Flight. 



THE LAST TEAR OF FEUDALISM. 537 

clan have been disposed of at auction. Every thing pertaining to feu- 
dal Fukui is passing away. Japan is becoming unified. Nevertheless, 
it causes some local suffering, and the poverty of many families, once 
in comfort, is increasing. 

December 15th. — The wild ducks and geese have come back from 
Yezo, and are thick in the fields. Great numbers of them are capt- 
ured by the samurai, who go out 
at early morning and at sunset, on 
the hills around the city, armed 
with a huge triangular net, set in 
a bamboo frame and pole. A 
dexterous hunter can throw this 
up twenty feet in the air. Thus 
outspread, the flying birds are en- 
tangled. This is called sakadori 
(hunting on the heights). Some 
men can take two ducks at once, 
or snare a fat goose at a throw, but many fail or wait in vain. The 
eligible places of vantage are bought for a trifling tax from the ken. 
To ward off the damp, the fowlers dress in grass coat and wide rush 
hat. Every morning I see them coming over the bridge. With pole, 
tunic, and hat slung on back like shields, they appear as old warriors 
in battle array. It is said that on certain nights the headless ghosts 
of Shibata and his warriors ride on horseback over this bridge into his 
old castle grounds. The country people imagine they can hear the clat- 
ter of hoofs, and see this troop of headless horsemen, on certain still 
nights ; but, although I have lived seven months on the site of his old 
castle in which he died, I never beheld the old hero's shade ; nor have 
I been tempted to scare any native Ichabod Crane by playing Brom 
Bones, though pumpkins are plentiful here. 

December 25th. — Yesterday ^a party of students cut down young 
pines, hemlock boughs, cryptomeria, arbor -vitae, and other greenery, 
and decked my house, in and out, in Christmas garb. The large steel 
plate of " American Authors " received especial honor. My cook and 
his family and the students last night hung up their tabi (mitten- 
socks, or "foot -gloves"), in lieu of stockings. This morning they 
found them overflowing with American good things, both sweet to 
the palate and useful to the hand. Santa Claus did not even forget 
the tiny white socks of little Chenkey, who is alternately dumfounded 
and uproariously merry. 



538 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Officers, citizens, and students visited me during the day, in accord- 
ance with my invitation. I kept open house for all, and told them of 
Christ's birth, life, work, and death. Many had never heard of Christ 
except as part of the Jashumon (corrupt sect), on the kosatsu, which 
hang near the main gate of the city. One bright boy, after peering 
around the house, vainly seeking something, finally whispered in my 
ear, " Where is your god-house ?" 

January 1th, 1872. — The city to-day swarms with country people. 
An immense festival in honor of Shinran is being held. The streets 
are crowded, and the shops in full blast. The Shin temples are pack- 
ed with people. Even the porch and steps and temple yards are full 
of pious folk. In the large kitchens attached to the temple are a 
number of iron boilers, each containing several bushels of rice. Vege- 
tables are being cooked in other pots, and many hundreds of hungry 
folks are eating in the refectory, some bringing their own food. The 
priests very politely took me through the rear part of the temple, be- 
yond the splendid altar, where I could see the vast crowd, and through 
the quarters occupied by the resident bonzes. The sight of so many 
thousand faces of people with hands clasped in prayer, with their 
rosaries, murmuring their petitions (" Namu Amida Butsu ") in the 
great hall ; then of the hundreds of hungry people feeding ; children 
and families resting — many of them had walked from ten to twenty 
miles ; the cooks in the fire-light, begrimed with, the smoke and sweat 
of the kitchen ; the waiters hurrying to and fro ; the receiving and 
counting of money, made a picture of Buddhism in its popular phases 
I can never forget. 

January 10th. — Some months ago I addressed a communication to 
the Minister of Public Instruction in Tokio, urging the establishment 
of a polytechnic school, giving plans and a few details. Evidently 
such an enterprise has already been determined upon. To-day I re- 
ceived a letter from the Mayor of Tokio, intimating that I was to be 
invited to the capital to fill a position in such a school. Another let- 
ter, by the same mail, from the Minister of Education, through the 
foreign superintendent of the Imperial College, invited me to fill one 
of the professorships in the polytechnic school (Shem Mon Gakko) 
about to be formed. An immediate answer is expected. 

January 11th. — I was called to the ken-cho to-day, the sanji ex- 
pressing their urgent wish that I should remain in Fukui, stating also 
that the citizens of Fukui, anticipating the invitation from Tokio, had 
petitioned the ken-cho officials to keep the American teacher in Fukui, 



THE LAST TEAM OF FEUDALISM. 539 

if possible. Having, however, lost most of my best friends and ad- 
vanced students from the city, and the loneliness having become al- 
most intolerable, I have resolved to go to Tokio. For over six months 
I have not seen one of my own race. The tax on the nervous system 
of being isolated, looked at as a stranger and a curiosity, made the 
target of so many eyes, and the constant friction and chafing of one 
Caucasian against a multitude of sharp angles of an Asiatic civilization, 
as represented by servants, petty officials, and ignorant people; and 
the more delicate work of polite fencing with intellectual rapiers 
against cultured men educated under other systems of morals and 
ideas; the ruin of temper and principle which such a lonely life 
threatens, are more than I wish to attempt to bear, when duty as well 
as pleasure seems to invite me to the capital. 

From the people, officers, and students I have received kindness 
and attentions both unexpected and undeserved. I find in them most 
of the tenderest feelings that soften and adorn human nature. Con- 
fidence, sympathy, respect, even affection from my students, have been 
lavishly bestowed. I have never had a quarrel with any one, nor have 
I been injured or insulted in any way. 

January 2\st. — From morning till night my house was thronged 
with people in the city — students, officials, mothers, fathers, and chil- 
dren, relatives of the students — who came to bid me good-bye. Ev- 
ery one of them, according to custom, brought a present, sometimes 
handsome and costly. In return, each received a trifle or refreshments, 
of which the solid remnants were wrapped in white paper, put into 
the sleeve, and carried away, as is the habit. " Leavings are lucky," 
saith the Japanese proverb. 

During my life in a feudal city in Japan far away from foreigners, 
I have seen the Japanese at home. It has sometimes seemed to me, 
in my walks through the old castle, or along the moats, or upon the 
ramparts, in the cemeteries, in the houses of the people, on the mount- 
ains, in my rides through the villages, that I was in fairy-land or in a 
dream. Yet these people are just like ourselves, their hearts the same 
as ours. Their emotions and traits, both noble and despicable, are twin 
to those which belong to mankind between the Alleghanies and the 
Atlantic. This is a trite truism. Yet in its truth consists its novelty. 
When men of differing climes and nations see behind each other's 
mail of codes, manners, education, and systems their common human- 
ity, the hope of their dwelling in peace as children of one Father is 
no longer a chimera. 



4 



540 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE 

Fukui and Echizen must decrease that Dai Nippon may increase. 
People complain that the empire is becoming too much centralized. 
The capital and ports are absorbing the strength of the whole coun- 
try. It is best. Only by centralization at this time can true nation- 
ality be attained. Make the heart strong, and the blood will flow to 
all the extremities. 

Japan's record of progress for 1871 is noble. The mikado's gov- 
ernment is no longer an uncertainty. A national army has been 
formed ; plots and insurrections have been crashed ; the press has be- 
come one of the motors of civilization; already several newspapers 
are established in the capital. The old local forms of authority are 
merged into the national, and taxes and government are equalized 
throughout the country. Feudalism is dead. An embassy has been 
sent to Europe, not composed of catspaw officials of low rank to rep- 
resent the " tycoon," but nobles and cabinet ministers of the mikado's 
empire, to plead for Japan and the true sovereign. The mikado, cast- 
ing away old traditions, now appears among his people, requiring no 
humiliating obeisance. Marriage among all classes is now permitted, 
and caste is to disappear. The eta and hinin are now citizens, pro- 
tected by law. The swords of the samurai are laid aside. The peace 
and order throughout the country appear wonderful. Progress is ev- 
erywhere the watchword. Is not this the finger of God ? 

Midnight. — It has been snowing steadily for seven days. All the 
objects five or six feet high are covered up. The landscape is a sea 
of white. A great many students wish to go with me to Tokio, but 
the sanji have laid an interdict on all for one month. The three stu- 
dents from Higo will, however, accompany me. I rely much on the 
fertile mind, calm skill, and enthusiastic regard of " Bearded Higo." 
Sahei, my servant, will attend me, and Inouye will be my escort. All 
my baggage is now packed up. It will be carried on men's shoulders 
over mountain and valley for three hundred and thirty miles to Tokio. 

In vain croakers and sincere friends have endeavored to dissuade 
me from this severe winter journey, or frighten me with stories of 
wolves, robbers, or the dangers of mountain passes, avalanches, or of 
being lost in the snow. I wish to see a Japanese winter in the high- 
lands, and to tramp over the Tokaido, and visit Shidzuoka. God 
willing, I shall be in Tokio by February 4th. Farewell, Fukui, thou 
hast been a well of blessing ; for in thee I have found some truth. 



A TRAMP THROUGH JAPAN. 541 



XVI. 

A TRAMP THROUGH JAPAN. 

January 22c?, 1872. — A pitiless blast. Snow drifting in heaps, and 
whirling fine dust. Baggage - carriers have gone ahead. Forty stu- 
dents wait to escort me to Morinoshita (Beneath the Grove), three 
miles distant. On Daimio Avenue a crowd of officials, citizens, and 
lads wait to say farewell. 

Sayonaras and good wishes are exchanged with mutual regret. The 
line of march is over New Bridge. In Boat-landing Street snow lies 
eight feet deep, with constant additions from the house-tops. Out on 
the plain, past the city, the blast is horizontal, its force overpowering, 
its sting terrible. It is difficult to keep the path. The cold is in- 
tense. Yet the students jest, laugh, and sing lively songs, as though 
on a summer's day. 

At Morinoshita we halt. The younger students return to Fukui. 
Our party and six others push on to Takefu. Here a farewell ban- 
quet is given me. Fourteen tables are set. Two hours of fun and 
cozy comfort pass. The hotel is warm. It seems madness to go out 
in the storm. Yet I will go. 

We send out for kagos or horses. We can get neither. Not a 
man will venture, even a ri, for triple the price. We lose two hours 
in waiting, and at four o'clock set out on foot. One mile of flounder- 
ing, and our strength is strained. It is getting dark. The landscape 
is level white. Even the stone idols are snowed up. No field, water- 
course, house, bush, or shrine is in sight. We can not see a hundred 
feet before us, even where the furious wind allows us to look ahead. 
We have lost the path. Our case is desperate. To advance or return 
is alike impossible. Total darkness is imminent. To spend the night 
here is to freeze. But look ! a lantern glimmers in the distance. We 
shout. The sounds are twisted out of our mouths, and swept into the 
snow-drift. Slowly the lantern vanishes, and with it our hopes disap- 
pear. 

Night swoops on us. For another hour we flounder, vainly seeking 

35 



542 THE MIKADO'S EMF1RE. 

the path. We are on the edge of despair. "Bearded Higo," calm 
and brave, is vigorously punching the snow to find bottom. Eureka ! 
He has struck the path. No pick of miner or drill of engineer ever 
struck gold or oil with intenser joy. We mount the crest of safety 
from our white abyss. Our leader keeps the ridge : we follow. We 
are often blown off or fall out, but his cane is surer than witch-hazel 
or divining-rod. We wade a mile farther. A shout from " Bearded 
Higo " announces a village. We peer through the blast. A house- 
gable looms up. Well named is Imadzuku (Now we rest). We 
crouch under the porch while one hies in quest of an inn. We enter 
not a palace; but cheery welcome glorifies host and house. We 
shake off, doff, and sit at the hearth, watching the cookery. Rice, 
bean-cheese, daikon, mushroom, fish, are served. Then we take up our 
beds and walk. With feet under kotatsu, come rosy slumbers and 
dreams of home. 

January 23c?. — Snow, snow, snow. Inouye has hired for me eight 
stalwart men, grasping staves, and shod with snow-shoes of birch 
boughs, two feet long, one foot wide, and well wattled, who wait at 
the door. Their leader punches the drifts for a footing, which on the 
mountains is tolerable, on the plains fearfully bad, often through slush 
and icy water. I wear straw boots : though wet, they keep the feet 
warm. After some miles, we tug up a steep pass with a warm name, 
Yunoo (Hot-water Tail). Chattering girls, in rival inns, give us noisy 
welcome. We sit down, drink tea, and gossip. A priest on his way to 
Takefu last night lost his path, and froze to death. A postman was 
struck by an avalanche, knocked down, hurt, and nearly smothered. 

We resume our march. Many tracks of avalanches, twenty feet 
wide, are seen. One crashes and tumbles just in front of us. I notice 
that the clapboard roofs of houses are weighted down by stones, like 
those on Swiss chalets. The tracks of boar, bear, foxes, and monkeys 
are numerous. It is the hunter's harvest-time. Dressed carcasses are 
on sale in every village. I wonder how a Darwinian steak would taste. 
" No, thank you ; no monkey for me !" is my response to an invitation 
to taste my ancestors. Good people, you need " science " to teach 
you what cannibals you are. 

At 1.30 p.m. we reach Imajd. At the huge fire-place, I warm and 
smoke myself till I learn how it feels to be a dried herring. Our 
food is sauced with hunger and hospitality. Verily, it is delightful 
to meet unspoiled Japanese, who have never encountered civilization 
or drunken sailors. 



A TRAMP THROUGH JAPAN. 543 

At 3.30 I mount a horse who has two legs and no tail. The sad- 
dle — a bundle of straw — rests on the man's loins. I bestride him, 
my legs on his hips, and arms round his neck. I can choke him if I 
like. I grip him tightly at dangerous places. These mountaineers 
think nothing of this work of carrying a man of sixteen-stone weight. 
Each man has a staff to prop me up when he stops to blow and rest. 
Riding man-back is pleasant, unless the animal (ippiki) is extravagant 
with pomatum, or his head-kerchief and the wash-tub are strangers. 
The horse-men carry us one ri. Snow is too deep : I dismount and 
plod on. Among solemn groves of pine, walls of rocks and hills, 
darkness falls ; but the moon silvers the forest, burnishes the snow, 
reveals mystic shadows. Our six bearers light four huge torches of 
rice-straw leaves and twigs, ten feet long and six inches thick. The 
lurid glare lights up the gorges. Prismatic splendors dance in the 
red fire-light. Snow crystals and pendant icicles become chandeliers. 
Intense fatigue can not blind me to the glories of this night-march. 

At nine o'clock the path is but a few inches wide. To miss a step 
is a serious matter. It plunges me to my waist in soft snow. The 
bearers pull or pry me out. Every step is misery. Another seems 
an impossibility. Yet none else of the party says a word. Admira- 
ble is the spirit of the Japanese in hardship. The last ri is torture to 
me. At last a light gleams above us. We file through the village 
street. Kindly welcome and tender care are mine from all. Sahei 
undresses me like a child. My limbs no sooner free, I sink, exhaust- 
ed, asleep. 

January 24 th.— I am too stiff to stand. I feel like singing the col- 
lege-song, " Saw my leg off," and with emphasis on the word " short." 
I hobble about for a few minutes. My joints relax. Our path lies 
through glorious valleys charged with vitalizing air. Amidst such 
scenery I forget my limbs. We hear the shouts of hunters. At ten 
o'clock we leave Echizen and enter Omi. In the village, at which we 
dine on wild-pork steaks, omelet, rice, and turnips, snow lies level with 
the eaves, shields of bamboo making a corridor between snow and 
houses. Our host, Nakano Kawachi, has speared eight hogs since 
snow fell. Strings of dried persimmons hang from his rafters like 
dried apples in an old-time New England kitchen. They look and 
taste like figs. The small boys are crazy with delight at the strange 
sight of a foreigner. A feint to scare them scatters the crowd and 
leaves a dozen sprawling in the snow. At Tsubae we spend the 
night. The inns are full. Our rooms are poor. The nomi (Pulex 



544 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

irritans) bite unusually hard. This is a rare behavior for them in 
winter. 

January 25 th. — Breakfast is flavored with fun and bright eyes. 
An extremely pretty, pearly - teethed, sweet- voiced, and bright -eyed 
girl waits on us. Her merry laugh and chatter make amends for 
shabby quarters. An unusually generous fee from the foreigner is on 
account of her reminding him of bright eyes in the home land. Faces 
here in Japan recall familiar faces long known, and every phase of 
character in New York is duplicated here. 

We are descending the highlands of Echizen and Omi to the plains 
of Mino and Owari. Weather grows warmer, villages more numer- 
ous, road more regular. We are in a silk region. Plantations of 
mulberry - trees, cut to grow only six feet high, abound. Lake Biwa 
lies in the distance, a picture of blue massively framed in mountains. 
Dining at Kinomoto (Foot of the Tree), we embark in kagos. In these 




How we rode to Odani. 

vehicles I always fall asleep at the wrong end ; my head remaining 
wide awake, while my feet are incorrigibly somnolent. I lie in all 
shapes, from a coil of rope to a pair of inverted dividers, with head 
wrapped from the cold and hardly enough face visible to make a mon- 
key. In the fine hotel at Odani, the old lady hostess is very mother- 
ly to her first foreign guest, until I settle in kotatsu in the " daimio's 
chamber," with maps and books on the floor, when she resumes her 
spectacles and sewing. Round the room hang gilt and lacquered tab- 
lets of the lords and nobles who have lodged at this house. My 
prince's card is among them. The old lady brings me sheets of paper 
to write my name, poetry, wise saws, etc., upon, as mementoes. After 
supper, Inouye "fights his battles o'er." A bullet grazed his fore- 



A TRAMP THROUGH JAPAN. 545 

head in the campaign of 18 68-' 70. The students recount the lore of 
the places passed, and the Guai Shi narratives. "To-morrow," says 
Inouye, " we shall cross the battle-field of Sekigahara." 

January 2Qth.— We have left the snow behind us. Through mul- 
berry plantations, over dark and loamy soil, we pass under the shad- 
ow of Ibuki yama, his glorious form now infolded with clouds, now re- 
vealed in sunshine. We pass the tomb of beautiful Tokiwa, mother 
of Yoritomo. Every step is historic ground. The study of topog- 
raphy is a wonderful help to the imagination. We are now on Ja- 
pan's greatest battle-field. The war panorama of October, 1600, ap- 
pears before me. Here stood the head - quarters of Iyeyasu ; there 
were the lines of battle ; over that road the army of the league march- 
ed to take up their position ; and beyond stood the Jesuit monas- 
tery where, botanists say, Portuguese plants grow, and flowers bloom. 
Here sat the victor who knotted the cords of his helmet. 

We are now on the Tokaido. This I see at once, from its width, 
bustling air, and number of tea-houses. Over this road tramped the 
armies of Iyeyasu, plodded the missionaries of the Cross and Keys, 
moved the processions of the daimios, advanced the loyal legions from 
Fushimi to Hakodate. To-day a different sight makes my heart beat 
and my eyes kindle. Emerging from a year's exile, here, in the heart 
of Japan, I see before me telegraph-poles ; their bare, grim, silent maj- 
esty is as eloquent as pulses of light. The electric wires will soon con- 
nect the sacred city of the Sun Land with the girdle that clasps the 
globe. Verily, Puck, thou hast kept thy word even in Japan. Morse, 
thou hast another monument. 

A glorious sunset writes in prophecies of purple and gold the 
weather " probabilities " for the remainder of my journey. At Ogaki 
— the persimmon of Iyeyasu — " the splendor falls on castle walls," and 
evening glow gilds the old towers as we enter the historic gate-ways. 
We spend the night here. 

January 27 th. — I meet many of the jin-riki-shas of modern, and 
pass a grassy mound of skulls and skeletons, the memorial of some 
battle in ancient, Japan. The road, lined with pine-trees, which over- 
arch and interlace, seems like a great cathedral aisle. We pass over 
long embankments, eighteen feet high and forty feet wide, made to 
keep off the tidal waves which sometimes arise. At Okoshi, we leave 
Mino, and enter Owari, with its many large towns and cities. At 
Kujosu we visit Nobunaga's old castle. At 4 p.m. we enter Nagoya, 
the fourth largest city in Japan, with the finest castle outside of Tokio. 



546 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Two of its towers were formerly surmounted with huge fish made of 
copper, covered with plates of gold. A rohber, who mounted on an 
immense kite in a gale at night and tried to steal the gold scales, was 
detected, boiled to death in oil, and the raising of large kites ever 
afterward prohibited in Owari. Nagoya is noted for fans, porcelain, 
and cloisonne enamel-ware. Miya is its sea-port. 

January 28 th. — Leave Chirio at bright starlight, witnessing a glori- 
ous sunrise. At 9 a.m. I met an American gentleman, with five bette, 
on a walk from Tokio to Kobe. Our meeting is mutually pleasant. 
His is the first white face I have seen for some months. Night spent 
at Shirastika, in Totomi. 

January 29th. — White Fuji, sixty miles distant, rises before me 
like a revelation. Almost simultaneously on my right I behold the 
sea, broad, blue, myriad-smiling. Thalatte ! Thalatte ! I have not seen 
the Pacific, nor Fuji, for very nearly a year. At Araii, we take boat 
and cross an arm of the sea, to a town famous for its shell-fish. I send 
a letter to Clark at Shidzuoka. We are now in the coldest part of 
the year, called kan, but when near Hamamatsu (Strand -pine) two 
runners, naked to the breech-cloth, whizz past me. On the shoulders 
of each is a live fish wrapped in straw. Epicures in Hamamatsu like 
to eat fish fresh from the net, within an hour of capture, and human 
legs take the place of the lightning express. The fleet postman is 
also clothed only in a suit of cuticle with loin-strap. A bundle of let- 
ters is slung on a pole over his shoulder. In the city we meet many 
natives between boots and hats, in the toggery, or a travesty of the 
tight clothes, of civilization. I see condensed milk, beer, Yankee 
clocks, buttons, petroleum; pictures of Abraham Lincoln, Bismarck, 
George Washington, Gladstone ; English cutlery and umbrellas ; and 
French soap, brandy, and wine. 

Fishermen seem to comprise the bulk of population in Totomi. 
Millions of small fish lie drying along shore, to be used as manure. 
The women are busy weaving cotton cloth in narrow breadths on rude 
looms. The salt-makers go to the surf with buckets, saturate patches 
of sand repeatedly with sea -water, which, evaporated by solar heat 
and wind, leaves a highly impregnated sand, which is leached, and the 
strong brine boiled down or sun-evaporated. In the morning, fisher- 
men keep watch on the hills till they descry the incoming shoals, when 
they descend and catch them. Sweet-potatoes are plentiful here, and 
the orange-trees glitter with their golden fruitage. We are within a 
few days of New-year's. All womankind in Japan is busy at house- 



A TRAMP THROUGH JAPAK 547 

cleaning. To us travelers, who are usually at windward of the mat- 
beaters and sweepers, it occasions much dust, and more disgust. In a 
village noted for silk, crapes, and embroidery, I make purchases, as 
souvenirs of my journey, as the Japanese invariably do. I also meet 
two signs of the new national life ; they are postage-stamps and silver 
yen, or dollars. 

January 30th. — Start from Matsuyama. Clark will be coming from 
Shidzuoka to-day to meet me. Who shall catch first sight of the oth- 
er? At 3.30 p.m., while passing over a long mountain pass, I roll out 
of my kago, to relieve the bearers and enjoy the exercise. I walk far 
ahead of my party. As I turn a rocky angle, I see him far ahead, 
leading his horse down a slippery path. A shout is answered by a 
halloo. In a moment more two old college chums, fellow-travelers in 
Europe, and co-workers in Japan, are in each other's arms. Our par- 
ties soon meet, and Shimojo, Clark's interpreter, exchanges his horse 
for my kago. Two " to-jins," instead of one, astonish the natives as 
we gallop over the Tokaido into Shidzuoka,* the exile city of the 
Tokugawa. (Poor Shimojo, " one of the sweetest and gentlest spirits 
that ever quitted or tenanted a human form," now sleeps in one of the 
grave-yards in Tokio.) Old memories and new experiences make busy 
tongues. Our chat is prolonged far into the night. My sleep is un- 
troubled with dreams or earthquakes. 

January Z\st. — To-day is for sight-seeing. I visit Iyeyasu's old 
castle, the school, the temples. I see the presents brought by Com- 
modore Perry. Here is a sewing-machine with tarnished plates and 
rnsty shuttles. There are maps, one of my native Pennsylvania and 
of Philadelphia, as they were in 1851. Here is a spectroscope, given 
before Bunsen and Kirchoff added to the alphabet of elements or an- 
alyzed the sun. There is also a miscellaneous array of English and 
other presents, including a gilt model of Victoria's crown. It awakes 
a curious medley of feelings to see this " old curiosity shop " in this 
" St. Helena of Tokugawaism." 

" Oh, what a tangled web we weave, 
When first we practice to deceive." 

The labels seem the gibes of fate. I meet many once prominent re- 
tainers of Tokugawa, men who have led fleets and armies, or headed 

* Formerly called Sumpu, from sun in Sunshiu, the Chinese form of Surnga, 
and/w, capital. Sun-fu becomes by euphony Sumpu, the capital of Suruga. On 
old maps it is marked as Fuchiu. 



548 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

embassies. Others live in poverty and obscurity. Some bear sabre- 
scars and bullet-marks as proof of their loyalty. Clark is extremely 
fortunate in having so many cultivated gentlemen, famous characters, 
and educated, intelligent helpers. The school was founded by Fuku- 
zawa. Nakamura Masanawo, professor of Chinese, and also educated, 
in London, his right-hand man, is printing his translation of " Mill on 
Liberty." He has shown me some of the cut wooden blocks ; for the 
author is very often his own publisher in Japan. In his memorial on 
Christianity, some months ago, in which he urged toleration, he argued 
that without the religion of Christ the Japanese are plucking only the 
showy leaves, while they neglect the root of the civilization of Chris- 
tendom. 

My host spreads a gorgeous American dinner in honor of his guest. 
Hattori, the governor of the ken, Nakamura, Yatabori, the school-on> 
cer, two Tokugawa ex-magnates, and two interpreters are present, the 
party numbering twelve in all. Mr. Katsu. is unfortunately absent in 
Tokio, and Mr. Okubo Ichio unwell. The latter sends me a fan in- 
scribed with his congratulations, poetically expressed. A great many 
gifts, rather compliments, are showered upon me by officials and citi- 
zens, who seem endlessly grateful for securing them so good a teacher. 
Unable to carry away the load of sponge-cake, confectionery, fowls, 
eggs, etc., I leave them to Sam Patch,* the veritable Sam, whom Com- 
modore Perry brought back as a waif to Japan in 1853. He is now 
officiating as cook to Mr. Clark. Sammy's notoriety has somewhat 
spoiled his pristine modesty, and his head, having never been ballasted 
with over two-thirds the average quantum of wit, is occasionally turned, 
to the annoyance of his master. 

February 1st. — From Shidzuoka the journey is rapid, jin-riki-shas 
being numerous. Mishima and the castled town of Numadzu are 
passed. The Hakone Mountains are ascended and enjoyed. The 
path is one long aisle under mossy monarch pines, through superb 
scenery. At dark, Sahei lights the tai-matsu (great torch), and the 
village people kindle fire-brands in the streets to guide the travelers — 

* His real name was Sentaro. He was a native of Iyo. On a return voyage 
from Tedo to Ozaka, the junk lost its rudder and mast, drifted fifty days at sea, 
and was picked up by the American brig Auckland. The crew consisted of sev- 
enteen men; among them were Heko and Denkichi (see Dankirche, Alcock's 
"Three Tears in Japan;" see, also, "Perry Expedition"). What is mortal of 
Sammy now rests in a temple cemetery at Oji, near Tokio. He fell a victim to 
that scourge called kakk£, in 1874. A plain stone cross, with the words " Sam 
Patch," marks his tomb. 



A TRAMP THROUGH JAPAN. 549 

a most hospitable custom. In these Swiss-like highlands I stop to 
buy specimens of the carved and mosaic wood-work of exquisite neat- 
ness and delicate finish. We sleep in castled Odawara. 

February 2d. — Arrive in Yokohama at 2.30 p.m. My year's resi- 
dence has given me the ken of a native. My eyes have not altered their 
angle, yet I see as the Japanese see. The " hairy " foreigners are ugly. 
Those proud fellows, with red beards and hair, look hideous. What 
outrageous colors, so different from uniform black ! How ugly those 
blue eyes ! How deathly pale many of them look ! How proud, how 
overbearing and swaggering, many of them appear, acting as if Japan 
were their own ! The white people are as curious, as strange, as odd 
as the Japanese themselves. 

Yokohama has greatly increased in size since I last saw it. I spend 
the night in a Christian home. After supper, at which sit father, 
mother, and children, some of the old sweet music, played for me on 
the piano, recalls all the dear memories of home and the home-land. 
The evening is closed with worship, in which the burden of prayer is 
for the rulers and people of Japan. A sense of gratitude in place of 
loneliness is uppermost in my mind as I lie down to rest. I have es- 
caped many dangers since I first left home, more than a year ago. A 
summary of these, as they flit across my drowsy consciousness, com- 
prises great variety. No steamer on the Pacific or Lake Biwa has 
burned (as the America afterward), foundered, wrecked, broken ma- 
chinery, or blown up (as one afterward did on Lake Biwa), with me 
on board. No stray gun-shot from bird-shooters in the rice-fields of 
Echizen has hit me. No ronin's sword has slit my back, or cloven 
my head, as I was told it would. No red -capped, small -pox baby 
has accidentally rubbed its pustules or shed its floating scales on me. 
A horse has kicked, but not killed me. No fever has burned my 
veins, or ague, like an earthquake, shaken me back to dust again. No 
kago has capsized over a precipice, or come to pieces while crossing a 
log-bridge over a torrent. No seismic throes have ingulfed me, or 
squashed my house upon me, nor flood overwhelmed me, nor typhoon 
whirled or banged me to pieces, nor fires burned me. No kappa or 
any other mythic reptile has grabbed me. No jin-riki-sha has smashed 
me. I have not been poisoned to death by fresh lacquer. My still 
sufficiently sensitive nose has not, for agricultural necessities, been par- 
alyzed by intolerable odors or unmentionable buckets. No charcoal 
fumes have asphyxiated me (alas ! my poor, gentle friend Bates !). I 
have not been seethed to death in hot water by jumping unwittingly 



550 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

into the boiling baths so often prepared for me. My temper, though 
badly damaged, has not, I hope, been utterly spoiled by Asiaticisms. 
No centipedes or scorpions have bitten me within a thread' s-width 
of my life ; neither have the fleas in mountain inns, though they have 
taken more than Shylock's portion, utterly devoured me. No drunk- 
en soldier has quarreled with me, nor skewered me with his sabre. 
Neither did I use chemicals till I had proved them, testing before 
tasting. No carbonate of soda has entered my mouth till I happily 
showed the label a libel by a drop of sulphuretted hydrogen water, 
and found it to be arsenide of sodium (Na 3 As.). I have proved many, 
and discovered a few, things. The best trovers of all are the human 
hearts and kindly nature of the Japanese. God bless the people of 
Japan ! 

February 2d. — At P 30 I take the steamer to Tokio. A white and 
driveling drunkard, his native mistress, and a Briton indulging in bran- 
dy and tobacco, occupy the cabin. I go on deck. Landing at Tsu- 
kiji, I finish my winter journey of three hundred and thirty miles. At 
the French hotel, a good square meal seems such a triumph of civili- 
zation that I wonder how any one could ever commit hara-kiri. 
Tokio is so modernized that I scarcely recognize it. No beggars, no 
guard-houses, no sentinels at Tsukiji, or the castle-gates; city ward- 
barriers gone ; no swords worn ; hundreds of yashikis disappeared ; 
new decencies and proprieties observed; less cuticle visible; more 
clothes. The age of pantaloons has come. Thousands wearing hat, 
boots, coats ; carriages numerous ; jin-riki-shas countless. Shops full 
of foreign wares and notions. Soldiers all uniformed, armed with 
Chassepot rifles. New bridges span the canals. Police in uniform. 
Hospitals, schools, and colleges ; girls' seminaries numerous. Railway 
nearly finished. Embassy rode in steam-cars to Yokohama. Gold 
and silver coin in circulation. Almshouses established. A corps of 
medical German professors occupy the old monasteries of Uyeno. 
General Capron and his staff of scientific American gentlemen are 
housed in the shogun's Hall of Rest at Shiba. A commission of 
French military officers live in the yashiki of Ii Kamon no kami, 
whose son is studying in Brooklyn. Three hundred foreigners reside 
in Tokio. An air of bustle, activity, and energy prevails. The camp 
of the chief daimio of a hermit nation is no more. Old Yedo has 
passed away forever. Tokio, the national capital, is a cosm.opolis. 

Now begins a three years' residence in the great city. 



THE POSITION OF WOMAN. 551 



XVII. 

TEE POSITION OF WOMAN. 

No one who is interested in the welfare and progress of the Asiatic 
nations can approach the question of female education without feel- 
ings of sadness as profound as the need of effort is felt to be great. 
The American who leaves his own country, in which the high honor 
paid to woman is one of the chief glories of the race to which he be- 
longs, is shocked and deeply grieved at beholding her low estate in 
pagan lands. He is scarcely surprised at the wide difference between 
the Eastern and the Western man ; for this he has expected. He can 
not, however, explain the low condition of woman by the correspond- 
ing state of civilization. He sees that the one is out of all propor- 
tion to the other. An inferior grade of civilization does not necessi- 
tate the extreme subjection of woman. If Tacitus records rightly, 
the ancient barbarians, whose descendants are the Germanic races, sur-. 
passed even the civilized Romans in the respect paid to their women. 
The "Western man in Asia sees that abject obedience as daughter, 
wife, and widowed mother is the lot of woman, as ordained by the 
wisdom of the ancients and fixed by the custom of ages. He sees 
the might of physical force, and the power of government and socie- 
ty, in league to keep her crushed as near to the level of the unreply- 
ing brute as possible. He finds that the religious systems agree in 
denying her a soul ; the popular superstitions choose her as the scape- 
goat for all tempted and sinning men ; and that spirit of monastic as- 
ceticism whose home is in the East selects her as the symbol of all 
that is opposed to the peace and purity of the aspiring saint. 

The student of Asiatic life, on coming to Japan, however, is cheered 
and pleased on contrasting the position of women in Japan with that 
in other countries. He sees them treated with respect and considera- 
tion far above that observed in other quarters of the Orient. They 
are allowed greater freedom, and hence have more dignity and self- 
confidence. The daughters are better educated, and the national an- 
nals will show probably as large a number of illustrious women as 



552 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

those of any other country in Asia. In the time of their opportunity 
— these last days of enlightenment — public and private schools for 
girls are being opened and attended. Furthermore, some of the lead- 
ers of New Japan, braving public scandal, and emancipating them- 
selves from the bondage of an etiquette empty of morals, are learning 
to bestow that measure of honor upon their wives which they see is 
enthusiastically awarded by foreigners to theirs, and are not ashamed 
to be seen in public with their companions. A few have married 
wives on the basis of a civil contract, endowing them with an equal 
share and redress before the law. Still better, Christian Japanese lead 
their brides to Christian altars, to have the sanctions of religion, 
though not the despotism of a hierarchy, to cement their marital 
union. In Christian churches, Japanese father, mother, and children 
sit together — a strange sight in Asia. The mikado's Government has 
made direct efforts to improve the condition of his female subjects. 
The eta women, with the men, have been lifted to the level of citizen- 
ship. The marriage laws have been so reformed as to allow the dif- 
ferent classes of society to intermarry. 

The abolition of beggary, though a general public benefit, deserves 
to be spoken of in this place. The introduction of improved silk-reel- 
ing machinery and the increasing area of tea-producing territory, by 
widening the field of female employments, have tended to swell the 
number of virtuous women, and diminish the ranks of the courtesans. 
Above all, the grand scheme of educating the girls as well as the boys 
throughout the country, and the establishment of schools of a high 
grade for young women, are triumphant evidences of a real desire to 
elevate the position of women in Japan, and to develop the capabili- 
ties of the sex. 

But what has thus far been done can not be looked upon as any 
thing more than mere indications of the better time to come — the 
gray light before the far-off full day. As yet, the country at large 
has felt only the faint pulses of the new ideas. The bondage of en- 
slaving theological tenets is to be cast off, popular superstitions are to 
be swept away, and the despotism of the Chinese classics — if Japan 
wishes to rise higher in the scale of civilization than China — is to be 
relaxed, before the Japanese woman becomes that factor of invincible 
potency in the progress and regeneration of Japan which it is possi- 
ble for her to be. 

That the progress of the nation depends as much upon the condi- 
tion of woman as upon that of man, is a principle not yet current in 



THE POSITION OF WOMAN. 553 

Asia. The idea that still remains as a lingering superstition, and the 
grossest relic of barbarism among Western nations, that might makes 
right, makes religion, makes every thing, is the corner and cap stone 
of Asiatic civilization. The gentle doctrines of the Indian sage have 
mollified the idea somewhat ; but in China and Japan, the hand that 
holds the sword is the sole arbiter of the destinies of woman. The 
greatest dread which the extreme conservatives of the Yamato dama- 
shi feel is that Western notions of the equality of man and woman 
should prevail. Such ideas, they imagine, will subvert all domestic 
peace, and will be the ruin of society and the nation. For the state 
of things to be " as if a hen were to crow in the morning," seems that 
point in the sea of troubles beyond which the imagination of man (in 
Japan) utterly fails to go. 

The whole question of the position of Japanese women — in history, 
social life, education, employments, authorship, art, marriage, concu- 
binage, prostitution, religion, benevolent labor, the ideals of literature, 
popular superstitions, etc. — discloses such a wide and fascinating field 
of inquiry, that I wonder no one has yet entered it. I resist the 
temptation to more than glance at these questions, and shall content 
myself with a mere sketch of the position and education of woman in 
Japan. The roots of this subject are not reached by a peep into a 
public bath-house. We must consult history, literature, art, and ideals. 
Our ideas and prejudices must not be the standard. Japanese see, 
with true vision, much to condemn among us that passes for purity 
and religion. Let us judge them fairly. 

Of one hundred and twenty -three Japanese sovereigns, nine have 
been women. The custodian of the divine regalia is a virgin priest- 
ess. The chief deity in their mythology is a woman. Japanese wom- 
en, by their wit and genius, made their native tongue a literary lan- 
guage. In literature, art, poetry, song, the names of women are among 
the most brilliant of those on the long roll of fame and honor on 
whose brows the Japanese, at least, have placed the fadeless chaplet of 
renown. Their memory is still kept green by recitation, quotation, 
reading, and inscription on screen, roll, memorial-stone, wall, fan, cup, 
and those exquisite works of art that delight even alien admirers east 
and west of the Pacific. 

In the records of the Japanese glory, valor, fortitude in affliction, 
greatness in the hour of death, filial devotion, wifely affection, in all 
the straits of life when codes of honor, morals, and religion are tested 
in the person of their professors, the literature of history and romance, 



554 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the every -day routine of fact, teem with instances of the Japanese 
woman's power and willingness to share whatever of pain or sorrow is 
appointed to man. In the annals of persecution, in the red roll of 
martyrs, no names are brighter, no faces gleam more peacefully amidst 
the flames, or on the cross of transfixing spears, or on the pyre of rice- 
straw, or on the precipice edge, or in the open grave about to be filled 
up, than the faces of the Christian Japanese women in the seventeenth 
century. Such is the position of woman in Japan in the past. 

So far of herself. The foreign reader must remember that I have 
not formed these opinions by a hasty glimpse of life at the sea-ports 
of Japan, where the scum of the world meets the dregs of that coun- 
try, but after several years of residence in an interior city and in the 
capital. Further, I am placing the average woman in Japan against 
the average woman in other lands. I am stating the position of 
woman in her relation to man and society in Shin Koku. In com- 
paring all other Asiatic nations, I am inclined to believe that Japan, 
in respect and honor to women, is the leader of them all. 

The foreign resident of India, Burmah, or China, coming to Japan, 
is surprised and pleased to find the Japanese accord to their women 
so large a measure of respect and considerate care. No woman's feet 
are ever bound, and among the middle and lower classes she is almost 
as much at liberty to walk and visit as in our own land. An amount 
of social freedom prevails among womankind in Japan that could 
hardly be expected in a country at once Asiatic, idolatrous, and des-' 
potic. No foreign reader can accuse me of undue eulogy of the Jap- 
anese after including them within the pale inclosed by the three ad- 
jectives just penned, "Asiatic, idolatrous, and despotic " — the educated, 
the enlightened, the rising men of Japan loathe the words. The writ- 
er who applies these stinging epithets to them will receive any thing 
but thanks. They do not like to be called Asiatics ; they despise idol- 
atry (Buddhism) ; and they are even now emerging from despotism to 
constitutional monarchy and representative government. Nevertheless 
I have written it, and it explains woman's position and character in 
Japan, and brings us to the standing-point where we may note the 
shadows in the picture. 

I shall not dwell upon the prevalent belief of foreigners that licen- 
tiousness is the first and characteristic trait in her character, nor upon 
the idea that ordinary chastity is next to unknown in Japan, for I do 
not believe that such is the case. That the idea of spiritual purity as 
taught by Christ — of the sin of defilement without reference to any 



THE POSITION OF WOMAN. 555 

thing physical or external, the commission of sin by the mere thought 
of, or looking upon, lust — is generally unknown, I believe fully. That 
the loftiest teachings of Buddhism or Shinto have failed utterly to 
purify them of this phase of their low moral status, I also believe. 
On the other hand, it must be stated that the chief patrons of human 
flesh let out on hire in Japan are from Christendom. 

It is the heathen religion itself that we are to arraign for the low 
state of woman in Japan as compared with that in Christian lands. 
The only religion in Japan worthy of a name, in the sense of a bind- 
ing system of dogmatics, or a purifying and elevating moral power, is 
Buddhism. Yet even in this there is no hope of immortality for a 
woman unless she is reborn as a man, which means that there is no 
salvation for a woman. In the eye of Buddhist dogma, ecclesiastical 
law, and monkish asceticism, woman is but a temptation, a snare, an 
unclean thing, a scape-goat, an obstacle to peace and holiness. Shin- 
to, a religion so called, seems to accord her a higher place ; but Shinto 
can never sway the heart and mind of modern Japanese people. 

A great principle and an Asiatic institution are the causes of the 
degradation of the Japanese women. The one is filial obedience, the 
other polygamy. The idea that filial obedience should be the cause 
of woman's degradation may strike the American reader as passing 
strange. In this land of irreverent children the assertion may be 
doubted, yet it is true. The exaggeration of this principle in China 
has kept that great nation stagnant for tens of centuries, and to-day 
blocks the advance of Christianity and of civilization. Duty to par- 
ents overshadows all other duties. 

The Japanese maiden, as pure as the purest Christian virgin, will at 
the command of her father enter the brothel to-morrow, and prostitute 
herself for life. Not a murmur escapes her lips as she thus filially 
obeys. To a life she loathes, and to disease, premature old age, and an 
early grave, she goes joyfully. The staple of a thousand novels, plays, 
and pictures in Japan is written in the life of a girl of gentle manners 
and tender heart, who hates her life and would gladly destroy it, but 
refrains because her purchase -money has enabled her father to pay 
his debts, and she is bound not to injure herself. In the stews of the 
great cities of Japan are to-day, I doubt not, hundreds of girls who 
loathe their existence, but must live on in gilded misery because they 
are fulfilling all righteousness as summed up in filial piety.* 

* More than one European writer has attempted to shed a poetical halo around 



556 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

So long as the institution of concubinage exists in Japan, home-life 
can never approach in purity and dignity to that in Christian coun- 
tries. It is often asked, "Are the Japanese polygamous ?" The ques- 
tion has two answers. A Japanese has but one legal wife, but he may 
have two or three more women if he chooses, or can support them. 

the Toshiwara system of Japan, while, on the other hand, well-meaning people 
have extensively circulated the absurd statements that the Japanese do not re- 
gard the business of these places as immoral; that it is quite common for Japa- 
nese gentlemen to make wives of the inmates ; that they exist in every city ; and 
more and worse. Not a few foreigners believe that "there is not a virtuous 
woman in Japan" — a slander that well befits the mouths of the ignorant bigots 
and seared libertines who alike utter it. It is true that in Japan there is not that 
sensitiveness on this subject that exists among English-speaking people, and 
that an ambitious young man in the lower social ranks, who aspires to wed an 
intellectual wife, will occasionally marry one of the bright, witty, educated girls 
who may have fascinated him in the Yoshiwara. This is rather her conquest than 
his. It is true that the yearning of these poor prisoners who have women's 
hearts is to win the love of a good man, to be a virtuous wife, to keep house, to 
be the joyful mother of children, and enter the path of purity ; and that Japanese 
society applauds the aspiration, forgives the past, and welcomes the person. 
Many a book of poems written by inmates of the Yoshiwara will show this, even 
if there was no other proof. On the other hand, the social evil in Japan is shorn 
of some features so detestably conspicuous in other countries. The street- walk- 
er is unknown. The place set apart for the vile business is rarely inside the city, 
but in its suburbs. A man may live for years in a Japanese city, and see none of 
the moral leprosy, such as nightly floods Broadway, the Haymarket, and Boule- 
vard des Italiens. I have known American gentlemen, thoroughly at home in 
the language, who in years of intercourse with the people have never received an 
improper proposal. It is also true that the Yoshiwara, so far from being what 
some European writers make it, is only another name for misery, degradation, 
and vice, in which suicide, disease, premature old age, abandonment, or blight 
wastes the lives of thousands of victims. The real opinion of Japanese people is 
expressed by their proverbs: "There is no truth in a courtesan;" "When you 
find a truthful prostitute and a four-cornered egg, the moon will appear before 
her time." There are tens of thousands of young men in Japan who have never 
entered the Yoshiwara. The common word among the students for what per- 
tains to them is dokiu (poison). The unlicensed are called jigoku onna (hell-wom- 
en). The opinion of the Government of these places is shown in the fact, that 
after a defalcation, murder, or gross crime, detectives are sent first to them. 
The Yoshiwara is a fenced plague spot, a moral quarantine, found only in the 
very large cities and sea-ports, not in the old daimio's capitals. The truth is, 
that the Japanese have the same problems of social evil to deal with as other na- 
tions. They have tried to solve them in the best way they know. It must be 
confessed that, in some respects, they have succeeded better than we have. The 
moral status of the Japanese is low enough, and every friend of Japan knows it; 
but let us tell the truth, even about the heathen. So far as they try to bridle 
crime, or solve mighty problems, they are deserving of sympathy, not censure. 
How far the placing of the Yoshiwara under rigid medical inspection will improve 
or degrade the moral status of the community, is yet to be proved. 



THE POSITION OF WOMAN. 557 

One wife, if fruitful, is the rule. In case of failure of an heir, the hus- 
band is fully justified, often strongly advised even by his wife, to take 
a handmaid to raise up seed to preserve the ancestral line. To judge 
of the prevalence of concubinage in Japan, we must not select either 
Tokio or the sea-ports. The one is the capital, as full of political and 
social corruption as our own; the others are abnormally luxurious 
places. After careful examination of the facts, I believe the actual 
proportion of men who have concubines in addition to their true wives 
is not over five per cent, of the whole population. Of those financial- 
ly able to maintain the indulgence, the percentage is probably twenty. 
The husband holds the power of the sword. The divorced wife has 
little or no redress. Yet the facility of divorce is not availed of as 
much as if there were no father-in-law, brothers, male friends, or fe- 
male neighbor's tongues in the question. Seven causes for justifiable 
divorce are laid down in the classics of Confucius, which are the basis 
of legal morals in Japan as in China, or as those of Justinian are with 
us. The wife may be divorced — 

1. If she be disobedient to her parents-in-law. (After marriage, in 
her husband's home, his parents become hers in a far more significant 
sense than among us.) 

2. If she be barren. (If the husband loves his childless wife, he 
keeps and supports her.) 

3. If she be lewd or licentious. (She must not be given to loose 
talk or wine. It is not proper for her even to write a letter to any 
other man.) 

4. If she be jealous (of other women's clothes, or children, or espe- 
cially of her husband). 

5. If she have a loathsome or contagious disease. (If dearly be- 
loved, she may be kept in a separate room and cared for.) 

6. If she steal. 

7. If she talk too much. 

It is needless to say that the seventh and last reason is the one fre- 
quently availed of, or pretended. The Japanese think it is a good rule 
that works but one way. The husband is not divorced from the wife 
for these equal reasons. Of course, woman in Japan, by her tact, 
tongue, graces, and charms, is able to rule her husband generally by 
means invisible to the outer world, but none the less potent. Though 
man holds the sword, the pen, and divorce, and glories in his power, 
yet woman, by her finer strength, in hut as in palace hall, rules her lord. 

In the Japanese home, in which there is more that is good and mor- 

36 



558 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ally wholesome than most foreigners who live only in the open ports 
are willing to acknowledge, may be found the place, by excellence, of 
the training of the female children. The rudimentary literary train- 
ing of girls in the higher classes was exclusively there, at the hands of 
private tutors or governesses. The female children of the lower classes 
received tuition in the private schools so generally established through- 
out the country during the last two centuries. After the elementary 
training came the study of those books for the special use of the Jap- 
anese women, which are to be found in every Japanese household pre- 
tending to respectability. These books collectively are called Onna 
Yushoku Miba'e Bunko. They constitute a library of works on the 
duties of women, but are often bound up in one volume. If the read- 
er will imagine a volume composed of the Bible, " Ladies' Letter- writ- 
er," " Guide to Etiquette," " The Young Ladies' Own Book," Hannah 
More's works, Miss Strickland's " Queens of England," a work on 
household economy, and an almanac, he will obtain some idea of the 
contents of the Bunko, or " Japanese Lady's Library." With text and 
illustrations, the volume is very large ; but if translated and printed in 
brevier with the cuts, it would not probably occupy more space than 
one of our largest monthly magazines. The books composing it, in 
their order of importance, are the Onna Dai Gaku (" Women's Great 
Learning " — the moral duties of woman, founded on the Chinese clas- 
sics) ; Onna Sho Gaku (" Woman's Small Learning " — introduction 
to the above) ; Onna Niwa no Oshiye (" Woman's Household In- 
struction " — duties relating to furniture, dress, reception of guests, and 
all the minutiae of indoor life, both daily and ceremonial) ; Onna Ima- 
gawa (" Moral Lessons " in paragraphs) ; Onna Yobunsho (" Lady's 
Letter-writer") ; Nijiu-shi Ko (" Twenty-four Children " — stories about 
model children in China). Besides these works of importance, there are 
Hiyaku Nin Isshiu — a collection of one hundred poems from as many 
poets, written in the old Yamato dialect, and learned in every house- 
hold, and perpetually repeated with passionate fondness by old and 
young ; a collection of lives of model women ; household lore ; alma- 
nac learning ; rules and examples to secure perfect agreement between 
man and wife ; and a vast and detailed array of other knowledge of 
various sorts, both useful and ornamental to a Japanese maiden, w 7 ife, 
widow, or mother. This book is studied, not only by the higher 
classes, but by the daughters in almost every respectable family 
throughout the country. It is read and reread, and committed to 
memory, until it becomes to the Japanese woman what the Bible is to 



THE POSITION OF WOMAN. 559 

the inmate of those homes in the West in which the Bible is the first, 
and last, and often the only book. 

Only a small proportion of Japanese girls attain an advanced knowl- 
edge of Chinese characters, though many of the samurai daughters 
have read the standard Japanese histories ; and in the best native 
schools at present a certain amount of the reading and writing of Chi- 
nese characters is taught, and one or two good histories of Japan are 
read. In the national, traditionary, heroic, and historic lore of theii 
own country, I doubt very much whether the children of any country 
in the world are better instructed or informed than the Japanese chil- 
dren. 

The fruits of this education, as modified or strengthened by social 
circumstances and religion, are seen in the present type of the Japa- 
nese woman. As compared with her sister in Western lands, and as 
judged by her own standards, she is fully the peer in that exquisite 
taste for the beautiful and becoming as displayed in dress and person- 
al adornment ; nor is she inferior in the graces of etiquette and female 
proprieties. 

No ladies excel the Japanese in that innate love of beauty, order, 
neatness, household adornment and management, and the amenities of 
dress and etiquette as prescribed by their own standard. In maternal 
affection, tenderness, anxiety, patience, and long-suffering, the Japanese 
mothers need fear no comparison with those who know the sorrows 
and rapture of maternity in other climes. As educators of their chil- 
dren, the Japanese women are peers to the mothers of any civilization 
in the care and minuteness of their training of, and affectionate ten- 
derness and self-sacrificing devotion to, offspring, within the limits of 
their light and knowledge. Though the virago and the shrew are not 
unknown characters in this Land of Great Peace, yet the three funda- 
mental duties of woman, which include all others, and as laid down in 
the Chinese classics, are almost universally fulfilled without murmurings 
or hesitation. These duties are, first, obedience to her parents (the 
father) when a child ; second, obedience to her husband when a wife ; 
third (at least formal), obedience to her eldest son when a widow. In- 
deed, the whole sum of excellencies and defects of the Japanese female 
character arise from one all-including virtue, and the biography of a 
good woman is written in one word — obedience. Japanese biogra- 
phies, let me add, contain quite as much truth as the average lives of 
dead people written in English. If unvarying obedience, acquiescence, 
submission, the utter absorption of her personality into that of her 



560 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

husband, constitute the ideal of the perfect woman, then the Japanese 
married women approach so near that ideal as to be practically per^ 
feet, and in this respect are, as foreign women will cheerfully grant to 
them, unquestionably superior. 

The Japanese maiden is bright, intelligent, interesting, modest, lady- 
like, self-reliant ; neither a slave nor a wanton. What the American 
girl is in Europe, the Japanese maiden is among Asiatics. Both are 
misunderstood. A Japanese virgin may act in a way not reconcilable 
with our standards. She may expose her charms so as to shock our 
exalted and chaste masculinity. Lighter-skinned womankind may see 
moral obliquity in an eye not perfectly horizontal, when there is none, 
The Japanese virgin knows nothing of the white lady's calculated lim- 
its of exposure, or of scientific dress-making, which by an inch of af- 
fluent economy exerts a more wicked influence than a nude bust emp- 
ty of intent to charm. 

The importance of the new education of Japanese girls to their 
country can not be overestimated. The revolution through which 
the nation is passing requires completion. The new reforms, of the 
necessity of which the leaders of Japan are convinced, and to which 
they are pledged, require to be certified, and to become part of the 
home -life of the people. The work of the Government must be 
done in the homes. The foundations of society are there; and as 
the home is, so will the State be in every land. All governments, 
in their various forms, are but households of a larger growth. 
Given a complete knowledge of the average household in any land, 
and the real government is easily known and understood. 

Looking at the question of female education even from the vulgar 
concrete standing -point — that woman is merely the supplement of 
man, and that the end and aim and Almighty purpose of a woman's 
creation is that she shall become some man's wife — the question is 
all-important. The rising generation, who are to take the places of 
the present leaders of Japan, are being educated in Western ideas, and 
are passing through a developing process which will tend to exalt the 
mental powers at the expense of the animal instincts. The decay of 
the old feudal frame-work of society, and the suppression of govern- 
ment pensions and hereditary revenues, by removing all actual neces- 
sity for marriage, will create in the minds of the increasing numbers of 
those who marry from the higher motives a desire for a congenial life- 
companion and helpmate, and not for a mere female of the human 
species. Though some of the present generation of students may 



THE POSITION OF WOMAN. 561 

marry ordinary native women, those who wish for happiness in their 
home-life, who aspire to rise out of the old plane of existence and 
dwell permanently on the higher levels of intellectual life, will seek 
for educated women as wives. The new civilization will never take 
root in Japan until planted and cultivated in the homes, and, to secure 
that end, the thorough education of woman is an absolute necessity. 

In conclusion, I must add my testimony and offer my plaudit to the 
earnest diligence and rapid progress of the girls in the national schools, 
of whose efforts and successes I have been witness, and which must be 
extremely gratifying to those who organized or who are interested in 
them. Of the signal success, far-reaching influence, and exalted teach- 
ings of the Christian missionary schools for girls, I can not speak in 
too high terms. In this good work, American ladies have led the 
way. By them the Japanese maiden is taught the ideals, associations, 
and ordering of a Christian home, a purer code of morals, a regenera- 
ting spiritual power, of which Buddhism knows nothing, and to which 
the highest aspirations of Shinto are strangers. Above all, an ideal 
of womanhood, which is the creation and gift of Christianity alone, 
eclipsing the loftiest conceptions of classic paganism, is held up for 
imitation. The precept and example of Christian women in these 
labors are mightily working the renovation of the social fabric in 
Japan. 

I think none will accuse me of failure to see the best side of the 
Japanese character, or of an honest endeavor to estimate fairly the 
force and capability of the religions of Japan. Fully conscious of my 
liability to error in all that I have written in this book, I yet utter my 
conviction that nothing can ever renovate the individual heart, nothing 
purify society, and give pure blood-growth to the body politic in Ja- 
pan, but the religion of Jesus Christ. Only the spiritual morality, 
and, above all, the chastity, taught by Him can ever give the Japanese 
a home-life equal to ours. With all our faults and sins, and with all 
the impurities and failures of our society, I believe our family and so- 
cial life to be immeasurably higher and purer than that of Japan. 

The religion of the Home-maker, and the Children -lover, and the 
Woman-exalter, is mighty to save the Japanese mother, and must be 
most potent to purify and exalt the Japanese home. Of all the 
branches of missionary labor in Japan, none, it seems to me, is of great- 
er importance, or more hopeful of sure results, permanent and far-reach- 
ing in its influence, than the work of Christian women for women in 
Japan. 



562 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



XVIH. 

NEW JAPAN. 

The history of Japan from 1872 to 1876 is intimately connected 
with that of the mikado. On the 1st of January, 1872, he visited 
the imperial navy, dock -yards, and machine-shops at Yokosuka, dis- 
playing the liveliest interest in all he saw. By his conduct through- 
out the entire day, and coolness and self-possession during a critical 
moment, when a damp mold, full of molten iron, exploded and be- 
spattered the imperial person, he proved himself more than a petty 
pseudo - divinity. He showed himself a man. The last act of the 
mystery-play was over. As a god, the mikado is a failure ; as a man, 
he is a splendid success. If he has any divinity, it is the divinity of 
common sense. From dwelling in mediaeval seclusion in the palace, 
steeped in sensual delights, degraded in body and mind to the intel- 
lectual level of a girl, the sovereign of Japan has taken his place 
among men of thought and action, a student, a thinker, an earnest 
and enlightened ruler. In April, Mutsuhito visited the Imperial Col- 
lege ; and, being in his presence several hours, and immediately before 
him during the performance of experiments and recitations by the 
students, I was enabled to study his countenance as he sat surround- 
ed by princes of the blood, court nobles, and ministers of the cabinet, 
all robed in variegated brocade. He was then dressed in flowing 
robes of crimson and white satin, with black cap or crown, bound 
by a fillet of fluted gold, with a tall, upright plume, or stiff rib- 
bon of gold. He appeared as the picture on page 102 represents 
some one of his ancestors. I afterward (January 1st, 1873) had the 
pleasure of an audience in the imperial palace, seeing him sitting on 
a chair, or throne, richly ornamented with golden dragons and lions, 
flanked by his sword-bearer and train of courtiers, in all the gorgeous- 
ness and variety of silk robes and ceremonial caps, so characteristic of 
rank in Dai Nippon. At the opening of the new buildings* of the 

* These are built in modern style, in three wings, each 192 feet long, joined to 



NEW JAPAN. 563 

Imperial College — thenceforth called the Imperial University of Ja- 
pan — I saw him dressed in the costume shown in the portrait on page 
37, thoroughly Europeanized in dress and person. I consider the like- 
ness in photograph and wood-cut to be a capital one. 

On the 3d of April, 1872, at 3 p.m., during the prevalence of a high 
wind, a fire, breaking out inside the castle circuit, leaped wall and moat, 
and in five hours swept Tokio to the bay. Five thousand houses and 
hundreds of yashikis and temples — among them the great Monzeki, 
in Tsukuji — were destroyed. The foreign hotels were left in ashes, 
which covered many square miles. Out of this calamity rose the 
phenix of a new plan with a new order of architecture. The main 
avenues were widened to ninety feet, the smaller ones to sixty feet. 
Rows of fine houses in brick and stone, and new bridges, in many 
cases of stone or iron, were built. Tokio is now thoroughly modern- 
ized in large portions. The foreign residents joined in the work of 
alleviating the distress. As bearer of their silver contributions to the 
mayor of the city, I found my old friend, Mitsuoka (Yuri), of Fukui, 
sitting amidst the ashes of his dwelling, but happy in the possession 
of an imperial order to visit America and Europe, to study municipal 
government and improvements. 

the main building, 324 feet long. They contain 79 rooms. The students, who 
wear uniform as in American schools, number 350, taught by 20 foreign profess- 
ors. The Foreign - language School, in which students learn the English or 
other language preparatory to entering the college, is on Hitotsubashi Avenue, 
opposite. It has 600 students and 20 foreign teachers. Both are well equipped 
with books and apparatus. At the banquet given October 9th, Higashi Fushimi 
no Miya, prince of the blood; Sanjo Saneyoshi, Dai Jo Dai Jin; Eto Shimpei, Oki, 
and Itagaki, Counselors of State ; Saigo Torimichi, Toshida Kiyonari, and many 
others, were present, all of whom I met. The empire is, for educational purposes, 
divided into eight districts, in each of which is to be a university, supplied by 210 
schools of foreign languages. The elementary vernacular schools will number 
53,000, or one for every 600 persons in the empire. They are supplied by native 
teachers trained in normal schools. At present, nearly 3,000,000 youths of both 
sexes are in school. With such excellent provision at home, the Government, 
having found out their expensive mistake of sending raw students abroad to 
study, and the political objects of the movement having been secured, recalled 
most of them in 1873 — an order that was curiously misunderstood in America and 
Europe to mean reaction. This, however, is a mistake. Trained students versed 
in the languages and science have taken the place of many of those recalled. While 
the embassy was in America, David Murray, A.M., Ph.D., Professor of Mathemat- 
ics and Astronomy in Rutgers College, was appointed Superintendent of Schools 
and Colleges in Japan. Dr. Murray, by his quiet vigor, unassuming manners, 
thorough competence, ability, and industry, has done much to improve and per- 
fect education in Japan. He was, in 1875, also appointed Commissioner to the 
Centennial Exhibition. 



564 



THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 



During the summer, Mr. Katsu Awa was made Minister of the 
Navy, and Mr. Okubo Ichio, Mayor of Tokio. A large number of ex- 
Tokugawa vassals were called into the service 
of the Government, and the old lines of divis- 
ion obliterated. The head of the Tokugawa 
family appointed by the mikado's court in 
1868, is Jiusammi Tokugawa Kamenosuke, 
whom I often met in Tokio. The Tokugawa 
clansmen are now among the loyal upholders 
of the throne and the new order of things. 
Mr. Katsu devoted himself to the thorough or- 
ganization of the navy (see page 597). The 
British model had already been selected. In 
the accompanying cut is given a specimen of 
the national fleet, the Tsukuba Kan, which 
Japanese Naval Officer. v i s ited San Francisco during 1875. The por- 
trait of the commander shows the Japanese naval officer of the period 
in modern tonsure and uniform. The sun-flag of Japan floats astern. 
In the latter part of June, 1872, the mikado left Tokio in the flag- 
ship of Admiral Akamatsu, who was trained in Holland with Enomoto, 





The Japanese Steam Corvette Tsukuba Kan. 



and made a tour in Kiushiu and the South and West of the empire. 
For the first time in twelve centuries, the Emperor of Japan moved 
freely and unveiled among his subjects, whose loyalty and devotion 
were manifested in the intense but decorous enthusiasm characteristic 
of a people to whom etiquette is second nature. In several ancient 
places the imperial hands opened, in anticipation of the Vienna Ex- 



NEW JAPAN. 565 

position, store-houses which had been sealed since the time of Seiwa 
Tenno (a.d. 859-876). Vienna was already engaging the attention of 
the Government. The mikado visited Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Nara, 
Kioto, Ozaka, and other places, returning to Tokio, August 1 6th, rid- 
ing from Yokohama by railway. 

The 14th of October was a day of matchless autumnal beauty and 
ineffable influence. The sun rose cloudlessly on the Sunrise Land. 
Fuji blushed at dawn out of the roseate deeps of space, and on stain- 
less blue printed its white magnificence all day long, and in the mys- 
tic twilight sunk in floods of golden splendor, resting at night with its 
head among the stars. On that auspicious day, the mikado, princes 
of the blood, court nobles, the " flowery nobility " of ex-daimios, and 
guests, representing the literature, science, art, and arms of Japan, in 
flowing, picturesque costume ; the foreign Diplomatic Corps, in tight 
cloth smeared with gold ; the embassadors of Liu Kiu, the Aino chiefs, 
and officials in modern dress, made the procession, that, underneath 
arches of camellias, azaleas, and chrysanthemums, moved into the stone- 
built depot, and, before twenty thousand spectators, stepped into the 
train. It was a sublime moment, when, before that august array of 
rank and fame, and myriads of his subjects, the one hundred and twen- 
ty-third representative of the imperial line declared the road open. 
The young emperor beheld with deep emotion the presence of so many 
human beings. As the train moved, the weird strains of the national 
hymn of Japan, first heard before the Roman empire fell or Charle- 
magne ruled, were played. Empires had risen, flourished, and passed 
away since those sounds were first attuned. To-day Japan, fresh and 
vigorous, with new blood in Ijer heart, was taking an upward step in 
life. May the Almighty Disposer grant the island empire strength, 
national unity, and noble purpose while the world stands ! 

These were my thoughts as the smoke puffed and the wheels re- 
volved. Past flower-decked stations, the train moved on. When at 
Kanagawa, puffs of smoke and tongues of flame leaped from the 
fleet of the foreign war-ships as their broadsides thundered the con- 
gratulations of Christendom to New Japan. But all ceremony, pag- 
eant, and loyal hosannas paled before the sublime significance of the 
act of the mikado, when four of his subjects, in the plain garb of mer- 
chants, stood in the presence of majesty, and read an address of con- 
gratulation, to which the emperor replied. The merchant face to face 
with the mikado? The lowest social class before traditional divinity? 
It was a political miracle ! I saw in that scene a moral grandeur that 



566 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

measured itself against centuries of feudalism. What were war's vic- 
tories, or the pomp of courts, compared with that moment when Japa- 
nese social progress and national regeneration touched high -water 
mark? It foreshadowed the time to come when the merchant, no 
longer despised, should take his place in the council-halls of the nation. 

When representative government comes, as come it must, the mer- 
chant, becoming senator, will help to sway the national destinies. 
The emperor in whose reign the eta were made citizens — an act as 
morally grand as the emancipation of slaves — now dwells at times the 
guest of a merchant. Before the end of this century, it may be, the 
throne, no longer stilted on the effete fiction of petty divinity, may 
rest wholly upon constitution, law, and intelligent patriotism. 

The doctrine of the divine descent of the mikado has been very 
useful in times past ; but its work is done. Its light is paling ; it is 
time for its wane ; it can not long remain above the horizon. There 
are so many Sons of Heaven, so many Centres of the Universe, Infal- 
libilities, etc., in Asia, where the fashion still lingers of making gods 
of men for the purposes of political machinery, that the very mention 
of such an idea is an evidence of weakness, even of imbecility. Japan 
will win the respect of civilization by dropping the fiction.* 

Again, in the same year, Japan challenged the admiration of Chris- 
tendom. The coolie trade, carried on by the Portuguese at Macao, 
in China, between the local kidnapers and Peru and Cuba, had long 
existed in defiance of the Chinese Government. Thousands of igno- 
rant Chinese were yearly decoyed to Macao, and shipped, in swelter- 
ing ship-holds, under the name of " passengers." In Cuba and Peru, 
their contracts were often broken, they were cruelly treated, and only 
a small proportion of them returned alive to tell their wrongs. 

The Japanese Government had, with a fierce jealousy, born of their 
experiences of slave-trade in the sixteenth century, watched the first 
beginnings of such a traffic on their own shores. Certain "Chris- 
tian " nations seemed to have a special inclination to trade in human 
flesh. The Dutch at Deshima during two centuries gave them exam- 
ples of sordid greed that stops not at selling men. Even their own 
pagan morals taught them the iniquity of the traffic. The works of 

* The propriety of giving the title "The Mikado's Empire" to this book has 
been challenged by several modernized Japanese, who believe that the life of the 
nation is more than the meat of a title, and the body more than its raiment of im- 
perialism; but the vindication of its use is abundantly shown in Japan's past and 
present. 



NEW JAPAN 567 

Japanese authors condemn the crime in unsparing terms, and load 
those guilty of it with obloquy. In the last days of the bakufu, 
coolie traders came to Japan to ship irresponsible hordes of Japanese 
coolies, and women for a viler purpose, to the United States. To their 
everlasting shame, be it said, some were Americans. A few cargoes 
were sent to Hawaii and California, and natives of Japan were actual- 
ly sold for contemptible sums to task-masters. Of those who return- 
ed were some of my own students. Among the first things done by 
the mikado's Government after the Restoration was the sending of an 
official who effected the joyful delivery of these people and their re- 
turn to their homes. No Japanese are ever allowed to go abroad, ex- 
cept as responsible, competent, and respectable citizens, who will do 
credit to their country. 

The story of the Maria Luz is a long one. I hope to condense it 
justly. The Peruvian ship, loaded with Chinese, put into the port of 
Yokohama. Two fugitive coolies in succession swam to the English 
war- ship, Iron Duke. Hearing the piteous story of their wrongs, 
Mr. Watson, the British charge d'affaires, called the attention of the 
Japanese authorities to these illegal acts committed in their waters. 
A protracted inquiry was instituted, and the coolies landed. The 
Japanese refused to force them on board in duress against their will, 
and later, shipped them to China, a favor which was gratefully ac- 
knowledged by the Peking Government. This act of a pagan nation 
achieved a grand moral victory for the world and humanity. Writ- 
ing now, in 1876, we see the coolie-traffic — a euphemism for the slave- 
trade — abolished from the face of the earth, and the barracoons of Ma- 
cao in ruins. China, shamed into better care of her people, has sent 
commissioners to Cuba and Peru, and has refused to enter into any 
treaty obligation with any South American State so long as a single 
Chinaman remains in the country against his will. Instead of a bom- 
bardment by Peruvian iron-clads, and war, so generously threatened, 
Japan and Peru have clasped reconciled hands in friendship. The 
case of the Maria Luz, referred to the Emperor of Russia for arbitra- 
tion, was decided by him in favor of Japan. A Peruvian legation is 
now established in Tokio. Yet the act of freeing the Chinese coolies 
in 1872 was done in the face of clamor and opposition and a rain of 
protests from the foreign consuls, ministers, and a part of the press. 
But abuse and threats and diplomatic pressure were in vain. The 
Japanese never wavered. As straight as Gulliver through the hail 
of pin-point arrows, the Japanese marched to the duty before them. 



568 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

They had freed their eta; they now liberated the slaves. The Brit- 
ish charge and the American consul, Colonel Charles O. Shepherd, 
alone gave hearty support and unwavering sympathy to the right side. 

During the year 1872, two legations and three consulates were es- 
tablished abroad. The number of these is now ten in all. At home 
the work of national consolidation went on, occasionally interrupt- 
ed by sporadic uprisings of peasantry, too ignorant to see that local 
abuses or privileges were being adjusted to a national basis of just 
equality. The press of Japan passed from the realm of experiment into 
that of an estate. The wondrous growth of this civilizing force is 
best seen by a study of the postal statistics on page 590. Ten daily 
newspapers in the capital, and two hundred publications in the em- 
pire, furnished with metal type and printing-presses, are flooding the 
country with information and awakening thought. The editors are 
often men of culture, or students returned from abroad, and special 
scholars are found on the editorial staff. The surprisingly large 
measure of liberty of the press granted in 1872, 1873, and 1874 was 
severely curtailed in 1875, and the problem of allowing newspapers in 
a country still governed by a despotic monarchy remains unsolved. 
The Japanese statesmen seem to imagine that a people may be educa- 
ted thoroughly, and yet be governed like children. To show the power 
possessed by the Government over the people, it is enough to say that 
the whereabouts of ninety-nine hundredths of all the citizens during 
any given past twenty-four hours can be told with great certainty. 

The establishment of the press has also exposed the fact that in 
these isles of the blest, in which some foreigners supposed existed 
only innocence, gentleness, or good -mannered poverty, reeks every 
species of moral filth, abomination, crime, and corruption. To scan 
the columns of an average Japanese newspaper is to read a tale of 
horror and nastiness that puts to the blush the obscene calendars in 
the sensational dailies and illustrated Police Gazettes of New York, 
which find their way only too plentifully into the editorial rooms of 
Japanese cities. As one measure of crime in Dai Nippon, I believe the 
number of executions and deaths in the native prisons averages three 
thousand per annum. There is scarcely a form of sin known to Sodom, 
Greece, Rome, or India, but has been, or is, practiced in Japan, which 
has sorest need of moral renovation. 

Yet in the department of jurisprudence vast progress has been 
made. I doubt whether any nation on earth can show a more revolt- 
ing list of horrible methods of torture and punishment in the past 



NEW JAPAN. 



569 



Their cruel and bloody 



with so great amelioration in so short a time, 
codes were mostly borrowed from China. 

Since the Restoration, revised statutes and regulations have greatly 
decreased the list of capital punishments, reformed the condition of 
prisons, and made legal processes less cruelly simple, but with elabora- 
tion of mercy and justice. The use of torture to obtain testimony is 
now entirely abolished. Law schools have also been established, law- 
yers are allowed to plead, thus giving the accused the assistance of 
counsel for his defense. The cut represents the old style of trial 




Court Scene. Old Stvle. 



The prisoner, the torturer, secretary, and judge were the chief or only 
personages at the trial. A museum as curious as any to be found in 
Europe might be made of the now obsolete instruments of torture. 
Let us hope that the system of jurisprudence founded on Roman law, 
infused with the spirit of Christianity, may be imported, and flourish 
in Japan. This is now being done. 

In moral character, the average Japanese is frank, honest, faithful, 
kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, loyal. Love of 
truth for its own sake, chastity, temperance, are not characteristic 
virtues. A high, almost painful, sense of honor is cultivated by the 
samurai. In spirit, the average artisan and farmer is a sheep. In in- 
tellectual capacity the actual merchant is mean, and in moral character 
low. He is beneath the Chinaman in this respect. The male Japa- 



570 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

nese is far less overbearing and more chivalrous to woman than any 
other Asiatic. In political knowledge or gregarious ability the coun- 
tryman is a baby, and the city artisan a boy. The peasant is a pro- 
nounced pagan, with superstition ingrained and dyed into the very 
finest fibre of his nature. 

In reverence to elders and to antiquity, obedience to parents, gentle 
manners, and universal courtesy and generous impulses, the Japanese are 
the peers of any, and superior to many, peoples of Christendom. The 
idea of filial obedience has been developed into fanaticism, is the main 
prop of paganism and superstition, and is the root of the worst blot 
on the Japanese character — the slavery of prostituted women. 

To sum up : Japanese are simply human, no better, no worse than 
mankind outside. The attempts of good people, with eyes jaundiced 
by theological dogmatics, to put so heavy a coat of moral tar and 
feathers upon the Japanese as to make them sinners above all nations ; 
or of hearty haters of all missionary labors, who are in love with the 
Utopia of their own creation, to make them guileless innocents, must 
alike fail before the hard facts. 

The whole question of the ability of the Japanese to receive the 
highest form of civilization is intimately connected with their phys- 
ical constitution. 

The physique of the mountaineers and sailors, fishermen and stead- 
ily employed coolies, seems to be the finest. The average height of 
the men is five feet. The Japanese never smoke opium, like the Chi- 
nese ; but the habit of filling the lungs with tobacco-smoke and exhal- 
ing it through the nose does not tend to pulmonary health, and, in 
comparison with the white nations, they are notably flat - breasted. 
The question has been raised as to whether the Japanese are a degen- 
erate race. I think the evidence leans to the negative side. In their 
method of rearing infants, only the hardy ones can survive the expos- 
ure to which they are subject. Deformity is strikingly rare. Rheu- 
matism, chills, and fever in the low-lying marshy districts, catarrh, and 
diarrhea are common, though not strikingly so. Nervous disorders 
are not general. Leprosy, or elephantiasis, is known, and kakke (leg- 
huinor) is peculiar to Japan. It is probable that the people do not 
always take extraordinary pains to rear deformed infants. Exposure 
or desertion of children is an almost unheard-of thing. The maim- 
ing and breaking of limbs, caused by accidents — by falling, explo- 
sions, etc. — so frequent in countries where high buildings and machin- 
ery are in general use, are rare among the Japanese. Varicose veins, 



NEW JAPAN. 571 

resulting from sans-culottism, furnish a curious argument in favor of a 
liberal supplement to Eden's costume, even to the donning of unpict- 
uresque pantaloons. Since the introduction of the jin - riki - sha, the 
prevalence of heart-disease among the coolies has assumed frightful 
proportions. The almost national change for the better in the diet, 
clothing, and public hygienic protection and education of the people 
must bear good fruit for future generations, and greatly improve the 
average physique of the nation.* 

The Corean war project had, in 1872, become popular in the Cabi- 
net. It was the absorbing theme of the army and navy. The samu- 
rai burned to make " the glory of Japan shine beyond the seas." It 
has been said that "if Japan weighs one hundred pounds, Satsuma 
is fifty of them." This warlike clan, and that of Hizen, boiling over 
with patriotism, vexed their righteous souls daily because the revolu- 
tion of 1868 had gone too far. The Yamato damashi and warlike pol- 
icy were giving way to considerations of finance. They clamored for 
a general return to ancient ideals, principles, dress, tonsure, and side- 
arms, to which they still clung. During the Tokugawa period Corea 
had regularly sent embassies of homage and congratulation to Japan ; 
but, not relishing the change of affairs in 1868, disgusted at the for- 
eignizing tendencies of the mikado's Government, incensed at Ja- 
pan's departure from Turanian ideals, and emboldened by the failure 
of the French and American expeditions, Corea sent insulting letters, 
taunting Japan with slavish truckling to the foreign barbarians, de- 
clared herself an enemy, and challenged Japan to fight. The divul- 
ging of this news, after vain- attempts to repress it, acted like a moral 
volcano. 

About this time, a Liu Kiu junk was wrecked on eastern Formosa. 
The crew were killed by the savages, and, as it is said, eaten. The 
Liu Kiuans appealed to their tributary lords at Satsuma, who referred 
the matter to Tokio. English, Dutch, American, German, and Chinese 
ships had, from time to time, been wrecked on this " cannibal " coast, 
the terror of the commerce of Christendom. Their war-ships vainly 

* Medical Statistics, not including Naval and Military Medical Staff, Hospitals, and 
Students. — There were in the empire in 1874 : 1 Government hospital; 21 public 
hospitals (assisted by Government grants in aid) ; 29 private hospitals ; 23,015 
physicians practicing according to Eastern, and 5247 according to Western, sci- 
ence ; 5205 apothecaries ; 361 mineral springs ; 944 patent medicines in use. 
There were, in 1875, as many as 25 foreign surgeons and physiciaus in Japanese 
Government employ, with 250 students in the Medical College in Tokio, and 75 
in that at Nagasaki, instructed by German, Dutch, and English professors. 



572 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

attempted to chastise the savages. Soyejima, with others, conceived 
the idea of occupying the coast to rule the wild tribes, and of erect- 
ing light-houses, in the interests of commerce. China laid no claim 
to eastern Formosa, all trace of which was omitted from maps of 
the "Middle Kingdom." In the spring of 1873, Soyejima went to 
Peking, and there among other things granted him was an audience 
with the Chinese emperor. He thus reaped the results of the dip- 
lomatic labors of half a century. The Japanese embassador stood 
upright before the Dragon Face and the Dragon Throne, robed in 
the tight black dress-coat, pantaloons, and white neck linen of West- 
ern civilization, bearing the congratulations of the young mikado of 
the Sunrise to the youthful emperor of the Middle Kingdom. In the 
Tsung Li Yamen, Chinese responsibility over Eastern Formosa was 
disavowed, and the right of Japan to chastise the savages granted. A 
Japanese junk was wrecked on Formosa, and its crew stripped and 
plundered, while Soyejima was absent in China. This event piled 
fresh fuel on the flames of the war feeling, now popular even among 
the unarmed classes. The only thing waited for before drawing the 
sword was the arrival of the embassy. 

In its subordinate objects the embassy was a signal success. Much 
was learned of Christendom. The results at home were the splendid 
series of reforms which mark the year 1872 as epochal. Moral, social, 
legal, political, educational, and material changes were so numerous 
and sweeping as to daze the alien spectator on the soil, and cause 
him to ask again, " Can a nation be born at once ?" 

In its prime object the embassy was a magnificent failure. Be- 
yond amusement, curiosity, thirst for knowledge, its purpose was 
constant, single, supreme. It was to ask that in the revision of the 
treaties the extra-territoriality clause be stricken out, that foreigners 
be made subject to the laws of Japan. The failure of the mission was 
predicted by all who knew the facts. From Washington to St. Pe- 
tersburg, point-blank refusal was made. No Christian governments 
would for a moment trust their people to pagan edicts and prisons. 
While Japan slandered Christianity by proclamations, imprisoned men 
for their belief, knew nothing of trial by jury, of the habeas-corpus 
writ, or of modern jurisprudence ; in short, while Japan maintained 
the institutions of barbarism, they refused to recognize her as peer in 
the comity of nations. 

Meanwhile, at home the watch-word was progress. The sale of orphan 
female children to brothel - keepers, the traffic in native or European 



NEW JAPAN. 573 

obscene pictures, the lascivious dances, even to nudity, of the sing- 
ing-girls, the custom of promiscuous bathing in the public baths, and 
of the country coolies going naked or nearly without clothing, were 
abolished. Public decency was improved, and the standards of Chris- 
tendom attempted. The law entered that the offense might abound. 
Many things absolutely innocent became at once relatively sinful. It 
was an earnest effort to elevate the social condition. With a basis of 
education and moral training in the minds of the people to underlie 
the Government edicts, complete success may be hoped for ; but even 
in the mikado's empire the moral character of a people is not made 
or unmade by flat. Marvelous progress has, however, been made. 
The slanderous anti-Claistian kosatsu were also taken down, and the 
last relic of public persecution for conscience' sake removed. The 
engraving, page 368, represents a vanished curiosity. A noble step 
was still further taken in the face of a bigoted priesthood and fanatic 
conservatives. All the " Christians " torn from their homes at Ura- 
kami, near Nagasaki, in 1868 and 1869, and exiled and imprisoned in 
Kaga, Echizen, and other provinces, were set free and restored to their 
native villages. This measure had long been urged by Hon. Charles 
E. De Long, Sir Harry Parkes, Mr. F. O. Adams, and Count Turenne. 
In this year (1872) I made a tour of one month, over nine hundred 
miles, to Shidzuoka, Kioto, Fukui, and along the Sea of Japan, to near 
Niigata, thence through Shinano and Kodzuke. I went to spy out 
the land and see how deeply civilization had penetrated. A week's 
journey was also made through Kadzusa and Awa, another in Shimosa 
and Hitachi, and three separate trips for purposes of research in Sa- 
gami, Idzu, and Suruga. My intense enjoyment of the classic ground 
was shadowed by the vivid realization of the poverty of the country, 
the low estate of the peasantry, the need of something better than 
paganism, and the vastness of the task of regenerating an agricultural 
nation. The task, though great, is not hopeless. I was pleased to 
find education thoroughly extended, schools everywhere, and boys and 
girls alike studying with the help of such new improvements as slate 
and pencil, blackboard and chalk, charts and text-books on geography, 
history, reading, etc., translated from standard American school-books. 
In Europe, Iwakura and his colleagues were cognizant of home 
affairs, With eyes opened by all they had seen abroad — mighty 
results, but. of slow growth — they saw their country going too fast. 
Under the war project lay an abyss of financial ruin. It must be 
crushed. Shrewdly they laid plans, warily they kept silence, sudden- 

37 



574 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

ly they struck the blow. The war scheme, brought up in a cabinet 
meeting, was squelched. The disappointment of the army was keen, 
that of expectant foreign contractors pitiable. The soldiers vented 
their rage in curses, the contractors in printed mud. Finding it use- 
less to resist the crushing power of Iwakura, backed by Okubo, Kido, 
Katsu Ito, and Oki, the ablest men of the cabinet, Goto, Soyejima, 
and Eto resigned and retired to private life. 

The volcano hardened to an outer crust. The war-loving samurai 
looked upon Iwakura as a peace-at-any-price man. He was also inti- 
mately connected with the financial scheme, now promulgated, of com- 
muting, with a view to final extinction, the samurai pensions. The 
nation, groaning under this burden — the legacy of feudalism — must 
throw it off, become bankrupt, or go back to isolation. It was throt- 
tling the life of the nation. 

It has been said that " the actual government of Japan is despot- 
ism, tempered by assassination." The old spirit was not yet dead. 
On the evening of January 14th, outside the castle moat, and near the 
palace-gates, the U Dai Jin was returning from an interview with the 
emperor. In the twinkling of an eye, his betto was cut down, the 
driver wounded, and the sides of the carriage pierced and cut to rib- 
bons with spear-points and sword-blades. Iwakura, wounded in two 
places, leaped out on the edge of the moat. He fell, and rolled into 
the water. The foiled assassins, in the pitch-darkness, not daring to 
linger for search, and unable to see or find their victim, made off. 
In spite of wounds, cold, and immersion, the U Dai Jin recovered. 
Soon afterward, nine ronins — eight from Tosa and one from Satsu- 
ma — were arrested, and their crime proved. The U Dai Jin pleaded 
that mercy be shown them. In vain. The nine heads rolled into 
the blood-pit. 

On the 17th of January, the ex-ministers, Goto, Soyejima, Eto, Ita- 
gaki, with Yuri, of Fukui, and others, sent in a memorial, praying for 
the establishment of a representative assembly, in which the popular 
wish might be discussed. They complained that authority lay neither 
with the crown nor people, but with the officials in power. Their re- 
quest was declined. It was officially declared that Japan was not ready 
for such institutions. 

Hizen, the home of one of the great clans of the coalition of 1868, 
was now the chief seat of disaffection. With perhaps no evil intent, 
Eto, who had been head of the Department of Justice, had gone back 
to his home in Hizen, an example which many of his clansmen follow- 



NEW JAPAN. 57 5 

ed, among them Katsiiki Kegu.ro, a student educated in Albany and 
London. It was the old story of sectionalism against national inter- 
ests. It was miniature secession. Scores of officials and men, but 
very few students, bound by oath and duty to the National Govern- 
ment, which had nourished or educated them, assembled with arms 
and traitorous intent in Hizen, and raised the cry of " On to Corea !" 

Here was armed rebellion. Were the flames to spread, all Kiushiu 
would be involved. In the midst of the impending civil war, the for- 
eign ministers pressed the payment of the last installment of the Shi- 
monoseki indemnity, expecting that Japan could not or would not pay 
it, but would grant more one-sided concessions. In pride and anger, 
the Japanese passed over the money-bags, and closed the contemptible 
business forever. 

The political barometer now began rapidly to fall. The Hizen 
war-cloud gathered blackness. The storm broke in war -fires and 
battle-blood. The rebels attacked the castle, and killed the garrison. 
Elated, they waited to see all Kiushiu join them. Their reckoning 
was fifty years behind the age. The days of Old Japan were passed. 
The era of steam, electricity, and breech-loaders had come. From the 
national capital darted the telegraphic lightnings. On the wings of 
steam, the imperial battalions swooped on Saga, as if by magic. The 
rebellion was annihilated in ten days. The leader, master-spirit, and 
judge was Okubo, modest in demeanor, wise in council, but in the field 
the lion-hearted hero that knows no fear. Eto, Katsuki, and ten oth- 
er ringleaders were sent to kneel before the blood-pit. The sword 
fell as each chanted his death-song. The heads of Eto and Shima 
were exposed on the pillory. The National Government was vindi- 
cated, and sectionalism crushed, perhaps, forever.* 

The story of the Formosan affair is more familiar to my readers. 
Thirteen hundred Japanese soldiers occupied this island for six months. 
In the few skirmishes with the savages, breech-loaders prevailed over 
arrows and smooth-bores. The imperial troops were commanded by 
Saigo Yorimichi, brother of Saigo Kichinosuke. They built roads, 



* In this campaign, over 40 villages and 1600 houses in Saga were burned, and 
350 of the national troops and 400 of the insurgents were put hors de combat. 
About 500 persons thus lost their lives by war's accidents, and 195 were punished 
with hard labor, imprisonment, or degradation from the rank of samurai. Eto 
was discovered in disguise, by means of a photograph for which he had sat, to 
begin a " rogue's gallery," when Minister of Justice, in Tokio. Okubo proved 
himself a Jackson, not a Buchanan, and made Saga both the Sumter and the 
Petersburg of the Hizen secession. 



576 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

and kept camps, and made fortifications in the style of modern engi- 
neering and military art. The attitude of China at first had been that 
of the sleeping crocodile that allows the tiny bird to enter its mouth 
to pick its teeth for food. Incited, however, by foreign influence in 
Peking, the sleepy nation woke in wrath and shame at the rebuke of 
Japan. The Chinese Government began to urge their claims on For- 
mosa, to declare the Japanese intruders, and to menace hostilities. 
For a time, war seemed inevitable. Again the man for the crisis was 
Okubo, who went to Peking. The result of this was that the Chi- 
nese paid, in solid silver, an indemnity of seven hundred thousand 
dollars, and the Japanese disembarked. To outsiders in Europe, the 
whole affair seemed but a "tempest in two tea-pots;" but, morally, it 
was sublime. Japan, single-handed, with no foreign sympathy, but 
with positive opposition, had, in the interests of humanity, rescued a 
coast from terror, and placed it in a condition of safety. In the face 
of threatened war, a nation having but one-tenth the population, area, 
and resources of China, had abated not a jot of its just demands, nor 
flinched from the wager of the battle. The righteousness of her cause 
was vindicated. China now occupies Eastern Formosa. The expedi- 
tion cost Japan five millions of dollars. Seven hundred victims of dis- 
ease in peaceful graves sleep under the camphor-trees on the templed 
slopes of the Nagasaki hills. 

The Corean affair ended happily. In 1875, Mr. Arinori Mori went 
to Peking. Kuroda Kiyotaka, with men-of-war, entered Corean wa- 
ters. Patience, skill, and tact were crowned with success. On behalf 
of Japan, a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce was made be- 
tween the two countries, February 27th, 1876. Japan has thus peace- 
fully opened this last of the hermit nations to the world. 

Japan was among the first to accept the invitation to be represent- 
ed at the centennial of American independence. A commission was 
appointed, of which Okubo was made president, and General Saigo 
Tsukumichi vice-president. 

Let us now award to every nation due honor. The Portuguese dis- 
covered Japan, and gave her slave-traders and the Jesuits; the Span- 
iards sent friars, slavers, and conspirators ; the Dutch ignobly kept alive 
our knowledge of Japan during her hermit life ; the Russians, after no- 
ble and base failures to open the country, harried her shores. Then 
came Perry, the moral grandeur of whose peaceful triumph has never 
been challenged or compromised. The United States introduced Ja- 
pan to the world, though her opening could not have been long delay- 



NEW JAPAN 577 

ed. The American, Town send Harris, peer and successor to Perry, by 
his 1 dauntless courage, patience, courtesy, gentleness, firmness, and in- 
corruptible honesty, won for all nations treaties, trade, residence, and 
commerce. The Dutch secured the abolition of insults to Christianity. 
To the English was reserved a quiet victory and a mighty discovery, 
second to none achieved on the soil of the mysterious islands. En- 
glish scholarship first discovered the true source of power, exposed the 
counterfeit government in Yedo, read the riddle of ages, and rent the 
veil that so long hid the truth. It was the English minister, Sir Har- 
ry Parkes, who first risked his life to find the truth ; stripped the sho- 
gun of his fictitious title of " majesty ;" asked for at home, obtained, 
and presented credentials to the mikado, the sovereign of Japan ; recog- 
nized the new National Government, and thus laid the foundation of 
true diplomacy in Japan. It is but fair to note that Americans have, 
in certain emergencies, derived no small advantage from the expensive 
show of English and French force in the seas of China and Japan, 
and from the literary fruits of the unrivaled British Civil Service. 

Let us note what Americans have done. Our missionaries, a no- 
ble body of cultured gentlemen and ladies, with but few exceptions, 
have translated large portions of the Bible in a scholarly and simple 
version, and thus given to Japan the sum of religious knowledge and 
the mightiest moral force and motor of civilization. The standard 
Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary is the fruit of thir- 
teen years' labor of an eminent scholar, translator, physician, and phi- 
lanthropist, J. C. Hepburn M.D., LL.D. The first grammar of the 
Japanese language printed in .English, the beginnings of a Christian 
popular literature and hymnology, the organization of Christian 
churches, the introduction of theological seminaries, and of girls' 
schools, are the work of American ladies and gentlemen. The first 
regular teachers in their schools, and probably half their staff in their 
colleges, are Americans. In the grand work of agricultural and min- 
eral development, in the healing art, and in jurisprudence, education, 
and financiering, Americans have done valuable service. 

Foreigners suppose the present Government to be modeled on the 
French system of ministries, whereas it is simply the modernized 
form of the constitution of the Osei era (see pages 103, 104) : 1. the 
Emperor ; 2. the Dai Jo Kuan ; 3. the Sa In, Left Chamber ; the Genro 
In, or Council of State ; 4. the U In, or Right Chamber, Council of 
Ministers or Heads of Department (Sho), which number ten (see page 
598). The Dai Jo Kuan also directs the three imperial cities (fit) and 



57 S THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

sixty-eight ken, or prefectures. The "provinces" are now merely geo- 
graphical divisions. 

In accordance with the oath of the mikado in Kioto, in 1868, that 
" intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world, in 
order to establish the foundations of the empire" (see page 318), about 
four hundred foreigners, from many countries, have been in the Civil 
Service of the Government. All these, with but two exceptions, are 
simply helpers and servants, not commissioned officers, and have no act- 
ual authority. To their faithful and competent advisers they award a 
fair measure of confidence and co-operation. To the worthless, nepot- 
ic, or those who would play the lord over their employers, they quiet- 
ly pay salary and snub. Whoever expects to be master will find him- 
self a cipher. Nevertheless, whosoever would serve well will surely 
rule. 

Can an Asiatic despotism, based on paganism, and propped on a fic- 
tion, regenerate itself ? Can Japan go on in the race she has begun ? 
Will the mighty reforms now attempted be completed and made per- 
manent ? Can a nation appropriate the fruits of Christian civilization 
without its root ? I believe not. I can not but think that unless the 
modern enlightened ideas of government, law, society, and the rights 
of the individual be adopted to a far greater extent than they have 
been, the people be thoroughly educated, and a mightier spiritual force 
replace Shinto and Buddhism, little will be gained but a glittering 
veneer of material civilization and the corroding foreign vices, under 
which, in the presence of the superior aggressive nations of the West, 
Dai Nippon must fall like the doomed races of America. 

A new sun is rising on Japan. In 1870 there were not ten Prot- 
estant Christians in the empire. There are now (May, 1876) ten 
churches, with a membership of eight hundred souls. Gently, but re- 
sistlessly, Christianity is leavening the nation. In the next century 
the native word inaka (rustic, boor) will mean "heathen." With 
those forces that centre in pure Christianity, and under that Almighty 
Providence who raises up one nation and casts down another, I cher- 
ish the firm hope that Japan will in time take and hold her equal 
place among the foremost nations of the world, and that, in the on- 
ward march of civilization which follows the sun, the Sun -land may 
lead the nations of Asia that are now appearing in the theatre of uni- 
versal history. 



JAPAN IN 1883. 579 



SUPPLEMENTAKY CHAPTEES. 
I. 

JAPAN IN 1883. 

Our record of events in the last chapter closed with a notice of 
the treaty made with Corea, February 27th, 1876, a diplomatic tri- 
umph which so silenced the disaffected, and so strengthened the 
power of the Government, that immediate advantage was taken of it 
to disarm the samurai. In response to a public sentiment already 
grown strong, and especially to the memorial of December 7th, 1875, 
from Yamagata, the Minister of War, the Premier Sanjo, on the 28th 
of March, 1876, issued a proclamation abolishing the custom of wear- 
ing two swords : " No individual will henceforth be permitted to 
wear a sword unless he be in court dress, a member of the military 
or naval forces, or a police officer." This measure, first advocated 
by Arinori Mori, in 1870, now became law throughout the land — 
even in Satsuma. 

The Coreans responded promptly to their treaty obligations. A 
Japanese steamer was sent to Fusan ; and the embassy from Seoul, 
numbering eighty persons in all, landed at Yokohama May 29th, the 
ambassador receiving audience of the mikado June 1st. These Co- 
reans were the first accredited to Japan since 1835, and none had 
come as far east as Yedo since the last century. Then they were the 
guests of the shogun ; but now direct official relations with the mika- 
do were resumed, after a lapse of nearly a millennium. These men, 
in huge hats, and white, blue, and pink cotton or silk robes, were 
profusely entertained in Tokio. They visited the public buildings, 
schools, founderies, and arsenals, inspecting the curious things of the 
nineteenth century, but avoiding all white foreigners as though they 
were reptiles, and embarked for home June 18th. 

Meanwhile the mikado, accompanied by several members of his 
cabinet, set out on a tour overland to Yezo. No emperor of Japan 
had ever visited the northern provinces, and the delight of the people 
at seeing their sovereign was intense. Visiting Nikko and the cas- 
tled towns along the route, the emperor made himself everywhere 



580 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

visible, allowing no check to be placed upon the business or behavior 
of the people, except that which their own sense of respect imposed. 
Among the excellent fruits of this tour were: the erection of a mon- 
ument to the patriot Rin Shihei ;* the making public of the docu- 
ments and relics of Father Louis Sotelo ;f and the gracious reception 
of an address to his majesty from the Greek Church Christians of 
Sendai, which augured the* near future of complete religious tolera- 
tion. The imperial journey, begun June 2d, was continued until the 
middle of July. His return to the capital amid many demonstra- 
tions of popular joy was soon after signalized by another bold stroke 
of power. On the 5th of August the measure, long before conceived, 
of extinguishing the hereditary pensions and life-incomes of the sa- 
murai, was proclaimed. Commutation in Government bonds, at from 
five to fourteen years' purchase, was made obligatory upon all. The 
scheme provided that the largest incomes should be extinguished first, 
and, when completed, will relieve the national Treasury of an annual 
burden of about $20,000,000. This act of the Government, which 
lightened the enforced poverty of thirty millions of people, and com- 
pelled the privileged classes to begin to earn their bread, was warmly 
welcomed by the masses. 

On the 21st of August another measure in the interest of public 
economy and of centralization was carried out : the empire was re- 
divided, and the sixty-eight ken or prefectures were reduced in num- 
ber to thirty-five. 

These radical measures enforced by the mikado's advisers — an ir- 
responsible ministry, possessing slight facilities for adequately gauging 

* Rin Shihei, a native of Sendai — whose work San Eoku Tsuran To-setsu (-" Gen- 
eral View of the Three Kingdoms [tributary to Japan], i. e., Corea, Yezo, and Riu 
Km "), was printed in 1785, and translated by Klaproth in 1832— was born in 1737. 
A far-seeing patriot, he studied military strategy while making pedestrian ex- 
cursions over the whole of Japan, especially along the coast, and by learning 
from the Dutch at Nagasaki and the Russians in Yezo. He was keenly alive to 
the subject of national progress and defense. His maps and books fell under the 
eye of the censors (p. 295) of the shoguu, who ordered the plates of his publica- 
tions to be destroyed, and had him thrown into prison, from which he never 
came out alive. 

t Father Louis Sotelo was a Spanish Franciscan friar, who, with Hashikura 
Rokuyemon, a retainer of the daimio of Sendai, sailed across the Pacific in a 
Japanese ship (p. 246) to Mexico in 1613, and thence reached Seville and Rome. 
They had audience of Pope Paul V., and Hashikura was made a Roman senator. 
They returned by way of Mexico to Japan ; but Hashikura was compelled to 
renounce his faith, and Sotelo was martyred at Nagasaki. (See Hildreth's 
" Japan," pp. 158, 199.) 



JAPAN IN 1883. 581 

public opinion — were not executed without protest within and without 
the cabinet. In the south-west, especially, were many earnest men, 
narrow and unprogressive, perhaps, who grieved deeply over the decay 
of old customs, the secularization of the Divine Country, the arbitrary 
policy and personal extravagance of " the bad councillors of the em- 
peror," and his "imprisonment" by them, the influence of foreign- 
ers, the toleration of Christianity, and the loss of their swords and 
pensions. Among the leaders of these conservatives were Mayebara 
and Uyeno — the one a discharged office-holder, and the other a man 
of seventy — whose followers organized clubs named Jimpu (Divine 
Breath, or Wind) and Sonno-Joi (Reverence to the Mikado, and Ex- 
pulsion of the Barbarian). 

On the 24th of October a party of nearly two hundred of these fa- 
natics, dressed in beetle-headed iron helmets and old armor made of 
steel and paper laced with silk, and armed with spears and swords, 
attacked the imperial garrison at Kumamoto, in Higo. They suc- 
ceeded in injuring about three hundred of the troops before they were 
dispersed, taken prisoners, or had disemboweled themselves. Other 
uprisings, more easily quelled, took place in Kiushiu ; while in Cho- 
shiu, Mayebara led five hundred armed men vainly against the new 
order of things, in which rifles, cannon, telegraphs, and steamers 
played their part. As by some new Jove, with hands full of thun- 
der-bolts, these Titans of a later day were transfixed by the lightnings 
hurled from Tokio in the form of steamers and rifled artillery. Quiet 
was entirely restored by December. A few heads were struck off, 
hundreds of the choteki were exiled or degraded, and another of the 
throes of expiring feudalism was over. 

The next insurrections were by men equipped in calico, with rush 
hats and straw sandals, gathered under banners of matting inscribed 
with mottoes daubed on in ink, and armed with spears made by 
pointing and fire - hardening staves of bamboos. These embattled 
farmers were enraged because the taxes had been changed from kind 
to money, and, instead of being assessed on the produce, were laid 
on the soil. Assaulting the local magistrates' offices, they had to be 
dispersed by the military, in some cases only after bloodshed. Time, 
good roads, banking facilities, clearer understanding of the purpose 
of the Government, have already changed temporary distress, caused 
by innovations, into satisfied prosperity. 

These violent expressions of the real grievances of the agricultural 
class, on whom the burdens of taxation mainly fall — three-fourths, 



582 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

or $50,000,000, of the total revenue of the empire ($69,000,000), 
being drawn from the tax on land — hastened another beneficial re- 
form. On the 4th of January, 1877, the national land-tax was re- 
duced from three to two and a half per cent. — a loss to the Treasury 
of about $8,000,000. The local tax, formerly amounting to one- 
third of the land-tax, was reduced to one-fifth, or nearly one-half. 
About the same time two other sweeping measures of economy, in- 
tended as an offset, were carried out. Besides thus directly relieving 
the people, the salaries of nearly all the Government officers and the 
expenses of the departments were reduced, several thousand office- 
holders were discharged, the Department of Religion (Kio Bu Sho) 
and the Prefecture of Police were abolished, and their functions trans- 
ferred to the Home Department, and a saving of about $8,000,000 
annually effected, to balance the loss to the Treasury from reform in 
the tax on land. Such a movement in official circles, popularly called 
ajishin (earthquake), met with the keen satisfaction of the majority, 
the joy of the citizens and peasantry being "beyond imagination." 
The Government now began to be less afraid of Satsuma ; less careful, 
also, perhaps, to keep informed of the state of public opinion, since 
the press laws were excessively stringent, and there was no safety- 
valve for discontent. 

The year 1876 will ever remain memorable as the critical year in 
Japanese journalism, when the severity of the press laws and Govern- 
ment prosecutions was more than equaled by the courage, firmness, 
and patience of a noble army of editors and writers, who crowded the 
jails of Japan, and joyfully suffered fines and imprisonment in order 
to secure a measure of "the freedom of the press" — a phrase which 
is the watch-word of liberty, not only in Europe and America, but 
among the Japanese also, in whose language it has become domesti- 
cated in common speech, like the new words which science, religion, 
and advancing political knowledge require for their expression. 

Closely connected with all measures of genuine reform is the name 
of Kido,, " the finest intellect " and " the brain and pen " of the revo- 
lution. While other leaders were eager and able to break down, 
Kido was pre-eminently the builder -up, and his genius essentially 
constructive. Himself the purest representative of the mind of 
Japan, he had applied the logic of the cardinal doctrines of Japanese 
politics — the divine right of the mikado to govern his people — and 
feudalism fell. He believed in discussion, in the wisdom of the ma- 
jority, and so he established newspapers and pleaded for represents 



JAPAN IN 1883. 583 

tive assemblies. He incarnated the soul of peaceful progress. He 
opposed alike the Corean and Formosan war projects, and the too 
rapid capitalization of the samurai's pensions. He applied himself 
to master the details of local administration, and carefully studied the 
problems of taxation and municipal procedure, both at home and in 
Europe and America. To rare political ability he joined an unselfish 
patriotism and a stainless record. Amidst all the clash of opposing 
interests which the destruction of the old and the creation of new 
institutions called out the voice of Kido was ever authoritative. 
While Okubo represented the foreign side of the revolution, and 
Saigo the military genius of Old Nippon, Kido embodied in himself 
the best elements of New Japan. He had been especially earnest and 
influential in bringing about the reforms in taxation and govern- 
mental economy, and in the calling together of a deliberative body 
of the ken and/w magistrates, which, meeting in Tokid in 1875, was 
opened by the mikado in person, and presided over by himself. He 
was now hoping to conciliate the disaffected samurai of Kiushiu and 
the one man whom they trusted, after having been, as they believed, 
betrayed by Okubo and the irresponsible ministers in Tokid. Had 
Kido lived, the sad and costly civil war might not have broken out. 
In the moment of his country's greatest need this noble patriot, over- 
wearied and wounded in spirit, was seized with a disease which soon 
made him understand that his work was nearly over. He died at 
Kioto, May 27th, 1877. 

Ever since 1868 Satsuma had remained the one portion of the em- 
pire unassimilated to the life of progressive Japan. The old clan 
which of old had awed the Yedo shoguns now terrified the rest of the 
country. Goaded by hatred and long-cherished revenge, the Satsuma 
men, without any sympathy with the nation at large, had led in the 
overthrow of their enemies, the Tokugawas. The political education 
of most of the clansmen was purely feudal. Their compass of duty, 
vibrating between reverence to the mikado and hatred to barbarians, 
pointed to personal loyalty as their lodestar. Anything broader in 
scope than the old elements of Japanese politics — loyalty to their 
chief, clan-fights, struggles between rival factions for the person of 
the mikado, the reign of the sword held by the idle and privileged 
classes, the grinding of the peasantry, and the expulsion or subordi- 
nation of foreigners — in a word, the virtues and the vices of feudalism 
— was not within their horizon. As for Saigo, their leader, with all 
the qualities in his character so attractive to a Japanese, he Jacked 



584 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

genuine patriotism, and probably aspired to be simply another " man 
on horseback," furnishing to history one more illustration of the 
Japanese variety of Caesarism. Had not this ninth decade of the 
nineteenth century been one of steam and electricity, instead of 
armor and arrows, the Tokio ministers might have kneeled at the 
blood-pit as choteki while Saigo dictated to Dai Nippon as Sei-i Tai 
Shogun. Providence meant it otherwise. The old style of Japanese 
Caesarism was over. 

After the revolution large numbers of Satsuma men had been ap- 
pointed to posts of honor in the army, navy, and police force, while 
Saigd and Shimadzu. Saburo were offered seats in the Cabinet ; but one 
after another the liberal political measures were carried out against 
the sentiments of men steeped in the vices of feudalism. Peace with 
Corea, commutation of pensions, the abolition of swords, and the 
contempt cast upon the wearing of the top-knot — as significant of the 
feudal spirit to a Japanese of the old school as a Pawnee's war-lock 
is to the red rider of the prairie — were too much for both Saigo and 
Shimadzu. The former, retiring to Kagoshima, founded a military 
school, which was soon attended by the flower of Satsuma's youth, 
while nearly twenty thousand men in Satsuma and Ozumi, living with 
their faces to the past, looked to Saigo as their master. The writer 
cherishes very vivid remembrances of walking unarmed in Tokio, and 
meeting face to face in nariow streets these fiery men of the old 
swashbuckler spirit. With their hair shorn off their temples, a gen- 
eral wildness of expression in their faces, a scowl of mingled defiance 
and contempt in their eyes, with their protruding swords and long, 
red-lacquered scabbards, they seemed the incarnation of fanatical pa- 
triotism and diabolical pride. Their favorite proverb was, " Though 
the eagle be starving, he will not eat grain," and rather than earn 
their living by vulgar trade, and accept the new order of things, they 
would gratify their thirst for blood. So great was the influence 
and prestige of Satsuma, that the impression became general through- 
out the country that the Government was afraid of this one sullen 
clan. What lent additional danger to the situation was, that a large 
arsenal, equipped with steam machinery and full of military stores, 
together with two powder-mills, capable of turning out thirty thou- 
sand pounds of powder daily, stood near the city of Kagoshima. 

Hitherto all revolts against the imperial authority had been minor 
and sporadic, and led by men of no special fitness for their task. 
That which we shall now describe was organized by the ablest mili' 



JAPAN IN 1883. 585 

tary mind, backed by the best fighting blood in the empire. Had the 
Government remained inert much longer, the plans of Saigo would 
have been matured, and with ampler resources the issue might have 
been different, or the struggle prolonged to the ruin of the nation. 

Wisely the rulers in Tokio resolved to precipitate the crisis, or at 
least unmask Saigo's designs, and a vessel was sent to Kagoshima, in 
January, 1877, under Admiral Kawamura, to remove the gunpowder. 
An attack threatened upon it by boats full of armed men was avoided 
by the admiral, but the arsenals and powder-mills were seized Febru- 
ary 1st, 1877, by a body of two thousand five hundred samurai. At 
this time the mikado and most of his Cabinet were in Kioto, whence 
they had come to inaugurate the opening of the railway between 
Kobe, Ozaka, and Kioto, which was celebrated on the 5th of February. 
At once recognizing the gravity of the situation, they dispatched the 
flower of the army and police to Kiushiu in steamers. All doubts as 
to Saigo's personal participation in the uprising were set at rest by 
his appearing before Kumamoto castle, to which he laid siege. 

The Island of the Nine Provinces was ordered to be placed under 
martial law, and Saigo, now named Saigd Takamori, was degraded 
from his rank as Marshal of the Empire, and Prince Arisugawa no 
Miya was appointed to the supreme command. Saigo and his gener- 
als, Kirino, Beppu, and Shinohara, were branded as choteki, but Shi- 
madzu Saburo remained loyal. The insurgent ports were blockaded, and 
fresh levies of troops were made and hurried forward. After a siege 
of fifty-five days, during which Kumamoto castle was nobly defended 
by Colonel Tani and his little band, Saigo was compelled to retreat. 

The war soon became scattered. The imperial army, under Yama- 
gata and Kawaji, marched in two large divisions from Kumamoto 
and Kagoshima, intending to inclose the rebels in a cordon. After 
many bloody skirmishes and a great battle, the two divisions effect- 
ed a junction. Saigo Tsukumichi, a brother of the rebel leader, took 
the field in July, during which month, owing to the hard fight- 
ing, six thousand of the mikado's troops were killed or wounded. 
While the imperialists were largely raw levies from the peasantry 
and middle classes, the rebels were in the main the veteran samurai 
of 1868. Even their women fought under the rebel banner. De- 
fending themselves in some instances by making a shield of the light, 
thick floor-mats, or tatami, the rebel swordsmen, by a sudden charge, 
drew the fire of the troops harmlessly, and rushing on them with 
their swords butchered them easily. 



586 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

On the 16th of August, Saigo Takamori's forces, reduced to less 
than ten thousand men, were attacked at Nobeoka, an old natural 
stronghold, and the bloody conflict resulted in a complete victory 
for the imperialists. With a few hundred followers the rebel leaders 
escaped into Hiuga, whence, on the 2d of September, they made a 
dash on Kagoshima, and held it two weeks. Thence they were driven 
out to Shiroyama, a few miles from the city. There, on the 24th of 
September, Saigo, Kirino, and Murata, having less than four hundred 
followers, were attacked by fifteen thousand troops of the imperial 
army, with mortars, cannon, and rifles. Armed only with swords, the 
little band fought, scorning quarter. Many of them committed 
hara-kiri, and Saigo was beheaded by one of his friends, who as a 
favor performed this act of kindness. Not one of the imperial sol- 
diers was killed. The three leaders and nearly three hundred of the 
band gladly met their death with unquailing courage, proud to die in 
blood by their own or at their comrades' hands, knowing no greater 
glory than to imitate Kusunoki and the ancient models of that fero- 
cious military virtue of Old Japan — Yamato damashii. 

This was the mightiest rebellion, inspired by the spirit of the past, 
against which the mikado's Government has had to cope. It was the 
supreme effort of defiance of the forces of feudalism and misrule 
against order and united government. The Old met the New — me- 
dievalism was pitted against the nineteenth century, and failed. 
" What Saigo could not achieve, no imitator will presume to attempt." 
The rebellion cost Japan fifty millions of dollars. The rebel troops 
of Satsuma, Ozumi, and Hiuga numbered 39,760, of whom 3533 men 
were killed, 4344 wounded, and 3123 missing. Of the imperial army, 
probably an equal number or more suffered the fate of war, a very 
large proportion of wounds being cuts from the old two-handed sword- 
blades. In the cities and villages of Japan, once quite free from the 
sight of legless and armless men and the results of gunshot wounds, 
the spectacle of empty sleeves, of men hobbling on crutches, and of 
bullet-scarred victims of gunpowder wars, is no longer a rarity. In 
the treatment of the rebels the Government displayed a spirit of leni- 
ency unknown to Asia, and worthy of the Christian name. Of the 
38,163 persons tried in Kiushiu, there were 295 acquitted, 35,918 
pardoned, 20 fined, 117 degraded from the class of samurai, 1793 
condemned to imprisonment, with hard labor, for terms varying 
from thirty days to ten years. Twenty persons were decapitated. 

Notwithstanding the war in the south, the enterprises of peace 



JAPAN IN 1883. 587 

went on. The National Industrial Exhibition at TTyeno, on the site 
of the battle-ground of 1868 (p. 315), which was closely modeled 
upon the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, was opened August 
21st, and closed November 30th, and was in every respect successful. 
During this time the cholera broke out in Japan, but by the stringent 
enforcement of sanitary measures its ravages were slight. Out of 
11,675 cases, there were but 6297 deaths — a victory of science no 
less renowned than that of the army at Nobeoka. 

The year 1878 marked the first decade of the mikado's government 
by means of an irresponsible ministry. The oath made by His Maj- 
esty in Kioto in 1868 to form a deliberative assembly had never been 
fully carried out. The earnest men in office were perhaps too busy 
to remind the mikado of his promise ; but the equally earnest men 
outside, continually advancing in political knowledge, and seeing one 
cause of the troubles that afflicted the nation in the official ignorance 
of public sentiment, had lost no opportunity to make their convictions 
known. By agitation in the newspapers, by memorials to the Govern- 
ment, by public lectures, the subject was pressed. One or two steps 
had been taken. In 1875 a Senate (Genro-in, or House of Eders) 
had been established, and an assembly of the ken governors — the 
creation of Kido — held one session in the capital, but only one. Un- 
der the pretext of the mikado's journey north in 1876, and of the 
war in Kiushiu in 1877, the meetings of this body had been adjourn- 
ed, greatly to the irritation of those who clamored for it as a national 
right, and complained both of the excess of personal government, and 
of the flagrant defiance of popular rights as based on the mikado's 
oath. 

Yet, more rapidly than the petitioners dreamed, the era of personal 
government was drawing to a close ; and, as usual in Japanese politics, 
the new era was to be ushered in by assassination. Okubo was mur- 
dered in the public highway in broad daylight May 14tb, 1878. 

Within one year Japan lost her three ablest men — Kido, Saigd, and 
Okubo. Of all these, Okubo, by temperament, training, and character, 
was best fitted to be the interpreter of foreign ideas to his colleagues. 
Resolute, daring, ambitious, his will was iron and his action light- 
ning. His burning desire, to raise his country from the low level of 
semi-civilized states to the height of equality with the proudest na- 
tions of the earth, created in him a ceaseless energy, that showed it- 
self in a long list of reforms with which his name is inseparably asso- 
ciated. He expected almost to see his country regenerated in a life- 



588 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

time. His chief idea was the thorough unification of Japan, and the 
extirpation of ail vestiges of the feudal spirit and of sectionalism. 
He believed that a railway built from Yezo to Kiushiu, even if it 
paid no dividend for a thousand years, would be of incalculable ad- 
vantage to the country in unifying the people. In order to hasten 
the growth of a century in a decade, he considered, perhaps too 
blindly, a strongly centralized G-overument to be of the first necessity, 
and in this opinion he was seconded by his colleagues of like mind.* 

Hence the error of these able men in not estimating at its proper 
value the equally eager desire of men outside the Government to take 
part in the tasks of civilization. Kido had warned them not to cling 
too closely to the traditions of paternal government, and the charge 
began to be made that Okubo was an enemy to public discussion and 
popular rights. Again the assassin's sword cast its shadow. 

On the evening of May 13th, 1878, having been warned of the im- 
pending danger, Okubo expressed before a party of friends his belief 
in the decree of Heaven, that would protect him if bis work were not 
yet done, but which otherwise would permit his death, even though, 
he were surrounded by soldiers. His words were prophetic. He 
spoke better than he knew. His work — the work of personal gov- 
ernment — was over; the era of representative government had begun. 
The next morning, while on his way to the mikado's palace, unarmed, 
he was murdered by six assassins, who were said to have been runa- 
ways from the Satsuma rebellion. The mikado immediately con- 
ferred upon his dead servant the highest rank, and elevated his sons 
to the nobility. The funeral cortege, in which princes, nobles, and 
the foreign diplomatic corps joined, was the most imposing ever seen 
in Tokio. f 

* I remember, while present at a dinner given by the junior Prime Minister, 
Iwakura, at his house in Tokio (July 16th, 1874), an American lady asked him 
what had impressed him most while in America, and especially at Washington. 
He answered at once, "The strength of the central Government, which for a 
republic seemed incredible to me." 

t Okubo's tall, arrowy form, luxuriant side-whiskers, large, expressive eyes, 
and eager, expectant bearing, gave him the appearance of a European rather than 
an Asiatic. When in Tokio I enjoyed frequent conversations with this distin- 
guished statesman, the last of which was on the eve of leaving Japan for Ameri- 
ca (July 16th, 1874), during which Okuko asked many questions about American 
politics. When about to leave I informed him of my intention to write a work 
on Japan, explaining as best I could the recent revolutions, that- Americans 
might understand their true nature. Okubo's piercing black eyes shone with 
pleasure for a moment, but immediately a shadow passed over his handsome 
face, and he said, " Your purpose is an excellent one. I am glad, and even grate- 



JAPAN IX 1883. 589 

The long step forward toward representative institutions was taken 
July 22d, by the proclamation for the calling of Provincial Parlia- 
ments, or Local Assemblies, composed of one delegate from each 
district (kori), which were to sit once a year in each ken. Under the 
supervision of the Minister of the Interior, these bodies are empow- 
ered to discuss questions of local taxation, and to petition the central 
government on other matters of local interest. The qualifications for 
members and electors are limited by ability to read and write, and 
the payment of an annual land-tax of at least five dollars. Each reg- 
istered voter, who must be twenty years of age, must himself write 
his own name and the name of the candidate voted for on a ballot. 
In this one respect the Japanese excels the American method. The 
foundations for further improvements were now broadly based. 

To anticipate, and pass over details, except to notice the constant 
agitation kept up by new engines in Japanese politics — the press, the 
lecture platform, and the debating club — the mikado, yielding to the 
irresistible pressure of public opinion, expanded and confirmed his 
oath of 1868, in the famous proclamation of October 12th, 1881: 
"We therefore hereby declare, that We shall in the 23d year of Meiji 
(1890) establish a Parliament, in order to carry into full effect the 
determination We have announced [" gradually to establish a consti- 
tutional form of government "], and We charge our faithful subjects 
bearing our commissions to make, in the mean time, all necessary 
preparations to that end. With regard to the limitations upon the 
Imperial Prerogative, and the constitution of the Parliament, We shall 
decide hereafter, and shall make proclamation in due time." 

Three political parties in Japan are now distinctly organized, each 
with its newspapers, clubs, mass meetings, and peripatetic lecturers, or 
" stump-speakers." They are the Constitutional Monarchists, Liber- 
als, and Constitutional Reformers, with minor cliques representing va- 
rious phases of radicalism or conservatism. Local societies cherishing 
socialistic, communistic, and even nihilist principles add to the varie- 
ty of opinions now distinguishable in a once hermit nation, whose 
entire stock of political knowledge, a generation ago, consisted of the 
two ideas of personal loyalty and hatred of foreigners. As a Japa- 
nese writer remarked in the Jiyu Shimbun — the organ of the liber- 
als — "The impulse of progress and innovation has invaded the na- 

ful, that you intend to explain our affairs to your countrymen, but I wish that 
some, one would write an instantly popular book explaining to our own people 
the intentions of the Government. Too many of them refuse to understand." 

38 



590 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

tion with the strength of a rushing torrent. A totally new Japanese 
empire is in process of establishment." 

Let us now glance at Japan's foreign policy and state-craft. With 
the Restoration of 1868 was born the desire to thoroughly consolidate 
the empire, and bring its outlying portions into closer relations to the 
throne. Some students of history will also say that the long-slum- 
bering lust of conquest awoke to new vigor. A school of Japanese 
thinkers claimed that the fullest expression of nationality would in- 
clude not only Riu Kiu, Yezo, Saghalin, and the Bonin Islands, as 
constituent portions, but also Corea and Eastern Formosa, as tributary 
dependencies — the last claim being based on Japanese settlement, as 
well as lack of Chinese jurisdiction. The solution of the Formosan 
and Corean problems was, as we have seen, soon reached. The Bonin 
Islands, first held in fief by Ogasawara, a daimio, in 1593, and visited 
by a party of explorers from Nagasaki in 1675, who gave the name 
Munin, or Bonin (no man's), had been neglected by the Japanese for 
centuries, though long a noted resort of whalers. In 1823 the Amer- 
ican Captain Coffin, and in 1827 Captain Beechy, an Englishman, vis- 
ited the islands; and Commodore M. C. Perry, in 1854, stocked them 
with sheep, goats, and cattle. In 187*7 there were on the islands 
a motley company of seventy persons, chiefly sailors from whaling- 
ships, Americans, Englishmen, and Hawaiians. In 1878 the islands 
were formally taken possession of in the name of the mikado, and a 
local government established by Japanese officers. Coffin Island will 
probably be the terminus of the proposed trans -Pacific submarine 
cable from San Francisco to Yokohama. 

Saghalin and the Kurile Islands had been the debatable ground be- 
tween the Japanese and Russians since 1790, the subject of confer- 
ences and mutual remonstrances, and the scene of some border-ruffian- 
ism and bloodshed. In 1875 Admiral Enomoto, at St. Petersburg, 
concluded a convention by which Japan received all the Kurile Islands, 
or Chi-shima, and Russia the whole of Saghalin. The Kuriles are 
rich sealing and fishing grounds, and Saghalin is now a flourishing 
penal settlement. The empire of Japan, as seen on the map of the 
world, now swings, by a long chain of islands at either end, between 
Kamschatka and Formosa. 

The island of Yezo was placed under the care of a special ministry 
— the Kai Takti Shi, or Department for the Development of Yezo — 
and so administered until the year 1882. Its mineral and agricultural 
wealth, as exploited by American scientific men, is noted in the Ap- 



JAPAN IN 1883. 591 

pendix to this work. Many millions of dollars were spent in devel- 
oping Yezo, under the oversight of Kuroda Kiyotaku — the negotiator 
of the Corean treaty, and a military leader of no mean abilities, as 
shown in the civil wars of 1868 and 1877. On January 11th, 1882, 
General Kuroda was appointed Cabinet Adviser, and the property and 
industrial undertakings of the department were sold — a proceeding 
which provoked a furious controversy among the political societies. 
On the 8th of February, Yezo was divided into the three ken, or pre- 
fectures, of Hakodate, Nemuro, and Sapporo, and governed like the 
rest of the empire. 

Before examining into the matter of Riu Kiu let us glance at 
Corea, with which a more vigorous policy was determined upon im- 
mediately after the Satsuma rebellion. A legation was established in 
Seoul, and Hanabusa, one of the ablest of Japan's rising young men, 
appointed minister. In the Coreans the Japanese saw themselves as 
they had been — hermits in the market-place — and many of the for- 
eigners' experiences with them before the opening of their ports were 
repeated in Corea, the Japanese in this case being the aliens and re- 
puted aggressors. A fresh treaty opened Gensan (Corean, Wonsan), 
on the north-east coast, May 1st, 1880, and three months later a sec- 
ond embassy of portly Corean men, in red, pink, green, violet, and 
azure, visited Tokio, to pray that the opening of the port of In-chiun, 
near Seoul, be postponed. The Japanese refused their request. The 
Coreans were now divided into conservatives and radicals, or progress- 
ives and reactionists. Even among the liberals some favored friend- 
ship with and imitation of Japan, while others looked to China as 
ally and model. One view of the Japanese which gained ground in 
Corea, especially in 1881, was, that the Japanese were arbitrary and 
high-handed in their dealing, and an Exclusion-of-the-Japanese Party 
began to form. Evidently the same state of feeling characteristic of 
Old Japan existed in Corea, in which all the elements of a political 
explosion lay ready. To blind hatred of all foreigners there was 
added a conservative bigotry willing to fan popular passions and su- 
perstition into a flame, while of two great feudal houses in bitter 
hostility to each other, one was in, and the other out of power. 

A third party, or embassy, composed of Corean liberals anxious to 
study civilization and progress in the neighbor-country, came to Japan 
in 1881. At this time it was uncertain whether the reactionists or 
progressives would sway the policy of the Seoul government. The 
young king, who had come to the throne in 1873, was backed in 



592 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

his enlightened policy by his consort and her relatives, the king's 
ministers ; but arrayed against them were the Tai-wen Kun, the late 
regent, and father of the king, with his feudal retainers, and the con- 
servative and reactionary literati who looked to him as their exponent 
and guide. As this old man had persecuted the Christians and 
driven off the French in 1866, and the Americans in 1871, and was 
still full of physical and mental vigor, he was a hopeful leader. The 
jealousy and bitterness between his family (Ni) and that of the 
queen's (Min) kept increasing daily. (See " Corea, the Hermit Na- 
tion.") 

The treaty with the United States was made May 9th, 1882, at In- 
chiiin, and soon after conventions were signed with Great Britain and 
other European nations. Drought prevailed throughout the country, 
and the bigoted conservatives wrought upon the superstitions of the 
masses by ascribing the lack of rain to the anger of the spirits, be- 
cause treaties had been made with foreigners. The soldiery of the 
capital, led chiefly by officers of the house of Ni, were on the verge 
of mutiny because of arrears of pay. They were further exasperated 
because, while their rations of rice were stopped, or at least curtailed, 
the foreigners (Japanese) had plenty. These apparently trifling 
causes, acting at a time when the relations of the two noble houses 
of Min and Ni (the queen's and the ex-regent's, respectively) were so 
strained, provoked a bloody riot at Seoul, July 23d, 1882. The pop- 
ulace and soldiery attacked the rice-granaries, the Japanese legation, 
the royal palace, and the barracks, at which a picked force of native 
military were being drilled by a Japanese lieutenant. Four of the 
court ministers and a number of minor Corean officers were slain. 
The Japanese, after holding the mob at bay for over seven hours, 
rushed out of their burning quarters, charged the crowd, and made a 
dash for the royal palace. Finding no help there, they crossed the 
river and marched to In-chiun. While asleep in the governor's house 
they were again attacked, and started for the sea-shore. After some 
hours spent on the water they were rescued by the British survey- 
ship Flying Fish. There were but twenty-six survivors out of about 
forty persons. Seoul and the Corean Government were now under 
the control of the Tai-wen Kun and his mob. 

Immediate and thorough preparations for war were made in Japan, 
and Hanabusa, after audience with the mikado in Tokio, was sent 
back to Seoul, which he entered August 16th, with an escort of five 
hundred men. After delays and a menace of war ample apologies 



JAPAN IN 1883. 593 

were made, and the demands of Japan were acceded to. Corea 
agreed to pay $50,000 to the families of the slain and $500,000 to 
the Japanese government, to dispatch an embassy to Tokio to offer 
apologies, to allow an armed escort in Seoul, and to extend farther 
privileges to Japanese officers and residents in Corea. Hanabusa was 
soon after promoted to be minister to Russia. A large deputation of 
Coreans visited Tokio in October, making a long stay, and receiving 
much attention from foreigners as well as natives. 

China's action after the Corean riot and usurpation of Tai-wen 
Kun was remarkable and unjustifiable. Dispatching a large fleet, 
with several thousand soldiers, to the peninsula, the capital was oc- 
cupied, and the king restored to power. Tai-wen Kun, entrapped on 
board a Chinese gun-boat, was kidnapped and taken to China, to live 
imprisoned as an exile. This object of high-handed assumption of 
power in a really independent state, and only nominally tributary, was 
evidently to checkmate the suspected designs of Japan, to assert Chi- 
nese supremacy, and to warn her ambitious neighbor that a third 
affair, like those of Formosa and Riu Kiu, was no longer possible. 

This warlike policy of China is but an indication of the state of 
feeling between the rival nations, which must at some future day 
eventuate in war. Ever since Japan's full assumption of sovereignty 
over Riu Kiu, the relations between China and Japan have been 
strained. At this little island-kingdom, noted alike for its sugar 
and its peaceful character, let us now glance. 

On a Mercator map of the Western Pacific, looked at from the east, 
the mikado's empire (cutting off Yezo) resembles a silk-worm erect, 
and spinning from its head (Kiushiu) a thread of islands which are 
strung along southwardly to Formosa. To this lengthened cord the 
name Okinawa (long rope) was very anciently given. The name — 
which the Japanese pronounce Riu Kiu, the Chinese Liu Kiu, and the 
islanders Loo Choo, which means sleeping dragon — well describes this 
land of perpetual afternoon. The people, numbering one hundred 
and twenty thousand — of whom as many as one-tenth lived on the 
public treasury — are true Japanese in origin, language, and dynasty, 
their first historical rulers having been descendants of the renowned 
Tametomo. As, however, the Riu Kiuans — calling China their father, 
and Japan their mother — sent tribute in junks to both countries, cul- 
tivated religious, literary, and friendly relations with either, both rival 
empires claimed the little kingdom. So long as neither nation as- 
serted supreme right all was well. The Ming dynasty had given the 



594 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Riu Kiu king a silver seal, and to his kingdom a name signifying 
"hanging-balls," intimating that the thirty-six islands of his petty 
domain were a fringe of tassels upon the skirts of China's robe. 
Hideyoshi once demanded that the islanders should pay tribute only 
to Japan ; but the Corean war coming on, he bad never enforced his 
demand. In 1609 Iyehisa, the daimio of Satsuma, conquered the 
^islands, and secured their tributary allegiance to his house and to the 
shogun. China, however, knew nothing of this act of Japan until 
after it was over ; nor, on the other hand, does any restriction seem 
to have been laid on the Riu Kiuans sending an annual tribute junk 
to Ningpo, China. Fifteen embassies from Riu Kiu visited Yedo, for 
investiture of the island-king, or to congratulate the shoguns upon 
their accession to power, between 1611 and 1850 ; but the same pol- 
icy was pursued toward China also. Both Corea and Riu Kiu were 
political Issachars bowing down between two burdens and two mas- 
ters. After the revolution of 1868 Riu Kiu was made a han of the 
Japanese empire, and the king acknowledged the mikado as his suze- 
rain. When, for the sake of the Riu Kiuans wrecked and murdered 
on Formosa, the Japanese sent an expedition to chastise the Botan 
savages, they took a step forward, and reducing the king to the status 
of a retired daimiS, erected Riu Kiu into a ken, or prefecture, like 
the other parts of the empire. To this the Riu Kiuans did not all 
agree, and continuing to send a junk to Ningpo, acted as suppliants 
for China's mercy ; while the Peking government considered that 
Japan was feloniously cutting off the fringes of China's robe. 

Under Japan's rule the sleepy dragon is waking up. Trade with 
Corea has begun, and with the other ports of Japan increased ; and 
old customs are giving way to more enlightened methods of life. Yet 
still the irritation between Japan and China continues. China having 
already a large naval force and a numerous soldiery, the questions of 
increasing the number of costly iron-clad war vessels, of building new 
forts, of enlarging the army, and of levying taxes in order to pro- 
vide the sinews of war, have engaged the attention of the Cabinet in 
Tokio during the past year. A hundred vessels of war and a stand- 
ing army of one hundred thousand men are not considered too many 
in case of war with China ; but to provide and maintain such a force 
would require vastly augmented resources, such as Japan, in this cen- 
tury at least, will never possess, her estimated total revenue for 1883 
being but $66,814,122, of which every dollar is required. Forty ships 
and forty thousand soldiers are thought to be the minimum for safety 



JAPAN IN 1883. 595 

in defense. Such enlargement of war material means, unfortunately, 
curtailment in the amount devoted to education. A national debt of 
$349,771,176 (May 31st, 1882) acts as a wholesome check upon too 
rapid expenditure. A revision of the treaties with foreign nations 
which will secure to Japan the rights of a sovereign state, especially 
the power, now wrongfully denied her, of regulating her own tariff, 
may enable her to swell her revenue, and thus in some measure pro- 
vide for that collision with her giant neighbor which seems inevitable. 

Christianity in three forms, Greek, Roman, and Reformed, is now 
a potent factor in the development of the nation. At the opening 
of the ports, in 1859, the Roman Catholics, with the advantage of his- 
toric continuity, began their labors at Yokohama and Nagasaki. The 
Holy Synod of Russia, five Protestant missionary societies — four 
American and one English — sent their agents to Japan. For ten 
years they were unable to make many disciples, and none openly, on 
account of the jealous hostility of the Japanese Government. The 
old anti-Christian edicts were enforced, and a native became a disciple 
of Jesus at the risk of his life. Some of the first teachers of the for- 
eigners were thrown into prison, and several thousand villagers from 
Urakami, near Nagasaki, were deported to northern provinces, away 
from the influence of their French teachers. Meanwhile the language 
was being mastered, and the work of healing, teaching, and transla- 
tion engaged in. The first Protestant church in Japan was organized 
in Japan by the Rev. J. H. Ballagh, of the Reformed Church in 
America, March 10th, 1872; the edifice, costing $6000, standing on 
part of the Perry treaty ground. Other churches were soon organ- 
ized, the first in Tokio, and the fourth in Japan, being on the 3d of 
September, 1873. During this year the anti-Christian edicts were 
removed, and Christian churches established in the interior, since 
which time the Christians have worshiped unmolested. Most of the 
important evangelical societies in Great Britain and the United States 
are now represented in the missionary work in Japan, and Sunday- 
schools, theological seminaries, native Christian associations, the press, 
Christian literature, Bible and tract distribution, public discussions, 
and open-air meetings are among the varied means used for the diffu- 
sion of Gospel truths. 

To Protestant missionaries belongs the honor of having translated 
the Bible into Japanese. Eighty years of Roman Christianity in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries failed to give the people of Japan 
the Scriptures in their own tongue. Gutzlaff, in 1838, and S. Wells 



596 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Williams, in 1839, at Singapore, made the first attempts, which, after 
several tentative translations by Brown, Verbeck, Hepburn, Green, 
and others, ripened in the fruit of a complete Japanese New Testa- 
meut in the high middle style of the language. This event of na- 
tional importance was celebrated by a public meeting of the mission- 
aries and native pastors in Tokio, April 19th, 1880. Many thousands 
of copies have been sold throughout the empire, and the Bible has 
now millions of readers. There are now probably forty thousand 
nominal Christians among the mikado's subjects. Shinto does not 
seem to flourish in the air of the nineteenth century, though Bud- 
dhism, especially the " Reformed " or Shin-shiu sect, which claims ten 
millions of adherents, is vigorously contesting with Christianity the 
possession of Japan. 

The wondrous assimilation of the salient features of modern civil- 
ization by the Japanese has smoothed the path for success in Chris- 
tian missionary labor which is marvelous. The literary hostility 
to Christianity was not at first great, nor is it yet of a character to 
inspire respect for the Japanese intellect. Nearly all the ammuni- 
tion of the priests, pagans, and opponents of the new faith is fur- 
nished by translation from Occidental sources. The literary, med- 
ical, and pedagogic work of the missionaries has borne a mighty 
harvest of good to the nation at large, while the friendly rivalry 
between the common schools and the missionary educational insti- 
tutions is most wholesome. The influences of the religion of Jesus 
are penetrating deeply into the social life of the people, and rooting 
themselves into heart and intellect alike. Licentiousness, intemper- 
ance, and lying are the moral cancers of the national character; but 
the ideals of Jesus are seen by an increasing number of the people to 
be the best inspiration to individual and national progress. 



JAPAN IN 1886. 597 



II. 

JAPAN IN 1886. 

The year of our Lord eighteen hundred and eighty-six, the nine- 
teenth of the Restoration, and of the reign of Mutsuhito, the one hun- 
dred and twenty-third mikado of Japan, finds the empire at peace, and 
in full career of progress. The emperor, now thirty-three years of age, 
is surrounded with a new generation of advisers. The old heroes and 
counsellors of '68 have mostly passed away. The old nobilities — of 
court and of land — have shrunk to a status almost wholly non-polit- 
ical. With new men and times come new measures and problems. 

Notable among those of national fame who have " changed their 
world" have been the junior premier Iwakura Tomomi, a noble of 
highest rank, and the elder prince Arisugawa. At an age still 
counted as mid-life by European statesmen, Iwakura sank in the 
plenitude of his influence, dying of an hereditary disease July 20, 
1883. Born in Kioto in 1825, of most illustrious ancestry, whose 
blood flowed from imperial and Minamoto stock, Iwakura was made 
personal attendant upon the Mikado Komei at the age of twenty. Ed- 
ucated in traditions of antagonism to the Yedo system, he was, in 
1861, on account of his opposition to the marriage of an imperial 
princess to a Tokugawa, forced into exile. Living in retirement and 
with shorn head during several years, he was yet in active communi- 
cation with the leaders of the impending crisis; and in 1868, to the 
surprise of the Yedo authorities, he emerged at the head and front of 
the new rnovemeut. Until the age of forty-three he had never seen 
foreigners, but on his first interview with Sir Harry Parkes was con- 
verted to belief in their equality, humanity, and abilities. Heartily 
accepting the principles of western civilization, he sent his three sons 
to study under Guido F. Verbeck, at Nagasaki, and thence to the 
United States. For fifteen years he was the close counsellor of the 
young mikado, who in 1871 personally visited his subject, and said, 
" It is to you, under the favor of the gods, that we owe the flourish- 
ing condition of the empire." It was Iwakura who, when opportunity 
like a flame softened the national heart as wax, bade the mikado with 
his divine prestige stamp it, and give to the fusing mass the express 



598 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

image of a nation by the abolition of feudalism. Utterly fearless of 
all personal consequences, this foremost man among the nobility 
pressed to their conclusion the results of the revolution during his 
twelve years of incessant toil. Emerging scathless from repeated at- 
tempts upon his life, he died quietly in his bed. Buried with all pos- 
sible funereal pomp, he received from the mikado the posthumous title 
of Dai Jo Dai Jin. Like Moses, having led a nation from narrow hori- 
zons to a higher outlook, he died at the right time. His death, as we 
shall see, paved the way for a closer union of the throne and the peo- 
ple. No successor to Iwakura — well named "Rock-throne" — could be 
found, while from below the new man for the new work was at hand. 

Arisugawa Takahito no Miya, a prince of the blood and of the high- 
est rank, father of the military leader who bore the imperial brocade 
banner in 1868, died January 24, 1886. Among others who have 
bowed to the harvest of death were many of the old daimios, the 
illustrious merchant Godai, of Ozaka, several female children of the 
mikado, and so many promising young men who had entered or were 
anticipating public life, as to suggest painfully the weakness of the 
Japanese physique. The percentage of deaths among the students 
abroad and at home is a constant source of sorrow and disappoint- 
ment. Of one hundred youths who begin their preparatory studies 
in the foreign language schools, not over five win their degrees at the 
Tokio University, over forty dropping out on account of disease or 
weakness.* 

Other causes than the knock of Pallida Mors have operated in the 
retirement from public view of men once prominent. The tendency 
of Japanese politics, in its evolution towards the goal of 1890, has 
been to eliminate entirely the old nobility, and to advance to power 
men for the time bred in the lower social ranks. The composite gov- 
ernment which rose on the ruins of the dual system in 1868 was 
founded on the theory of a union of the throne with the people, the 
only intermediary being the kuge, or court nobles. This took the 
form of a triple premiership of Dai-jins; Sanjo and Iwakura filling 
two of the three highest offices, while the details of administration 
were carried on by the ministers, who were men of the samurai class. 
Gradually the forces of intellect, of natural ability, and of education 

* Reiki, "the last tycoon," was reported to have died in 1884. This was a 
mistake. In 1890 we read of his visiting the hot springs of Itami. On the 14th 
of April, 1889, a monument to his retainers slain in the civil war of 1868-70 was 
unveiled at Uyeno, Tokio. 



JAPAN IN 1886. 599 

manifested themselves, driving out inferior men, unable to eope with 
the new problems of statecraft or to resist the pressure from be- 
low, and elevating to influential position the able men of low rank. 
These demanded not only office and hearing, but tangible recognition, 
in the form of social advancement, from the throne itself. In response 
to public opinion the mikado issued an edict dated June 6, 1884, 
which readjusted the system of nobility. In the newly-created orders 
of princes, marquises, counts, viscounts, and barons, were found many 
men once in the class of gentry only, who had performed distin- 
guished services on behalf of their country. Nearly three hundred 
persons in the aristocracy of intellect were thus ennobled on the basis 
of merit. Orders and decorations have also been distributed with lav- 
ish hand to both natives and foreigners. It is expected that the 
nobles will furnish the personnel of the Upper House of Lords or 
Notables for the Parliament of 1890. 

To this goal the forces of Japanese politics have kept steadily mov- 
ing, though with many fluctuations and vicissitudes, among which 
have been the rise and fall of parties, plottings, riots, dynamite, sus- 
picion, imprisonments, trials, release or executions. For various rea- 
sons the Liberal party was dissolved in October, 1884. 

Within the Government circles there had been occasional shiftino-s 
of office without radical change ; but a movement of almost revolu- 
tionary import took place at the end of 1885. The death of Iwakura, 
and the apparently approaching senility of Sanjo, gave the opportu- 
nity ; while necessity, in view of the strides of time that wait for no 
man, forced the issue. With the unexpected suddenness of an earth- 
quake shock, every member of the old court party was retired from 
active office, while young men educated abroad — Ito, Inouye, Mori, 
Enomoto — stepped into the highest offices. 

By recommendation (on paper at least) of Sanjo, and by decree of 
the mikado, December 22, 1885, the triple premiership, the privy 
council, and the ministries as then constituted were abolished. In 
their place a cabinet was established, at the head of which was a min- 
ister-president of state. The old boards of government, with a new 
one of communications (railways, telegraphs, mails), were reorgan- 
ized in such a way as to discharge from public employ about eight 
thousand office-holders. The new crystallization of political forces is 
in the interest of democracy and economy, as well as of executive uni- 
formity and vigor. All in the new cabinet are men of modern ideas, 
culture, and conviction, while the Asiatic features of the Government 



600 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

have retired into shadow. The Mikado Mutsiihito now meets his 
ministers in council, deliberates with them, and must share personal re- 
sponsibility. The throne, by having several courses of intermediaries 
quietly and safely removed, is more nearly " broad-based upon the 
people's will." It may be that the future parliament will check any 
undue tendency in the ministry to bureauocracy. As yet it is uncer- 
tain whether the form of representative government in Japan will 
most closely approach the British or the Prussian model. It will be 
a bitter disappointment to the liberal patriots if the ministry is to be 
made responsible to the sovereign and not to the parliament. 

The temptations which beset Asiatic nations in adopting the salient 
features of modern civilization to embark upon costly schemes of re- 
form and equipment are great, and the possible dangers are greater. 
The Japanese Government seems wisely anxious to study economy and 
avoid undue expenditure. Besides reducing the once abnormal force 
of office-holders, western methods of book-keeping have been intro- 
duced into the public service, and the financial estimates for each 
year are reduced to the lowest point. The total national revenue 
for the nineteenth fiscal year of Meiji was $74,695,415, and the 
expenditure was $74,689,014. About $20,000,000 is applied year- 
ly to the extinguishing of the national debt, which in 1885 was 
$245,427,329. 

The customs returns of trade since 1868, published in July, 1886, 
shows that the foreign commerce of Japan is healthfully developing. 
In 1869 the exports were less than $13,000,000, but during each of 
the last five years they have not fallen below $30,000,000. The im- 
ports in 1868 were valued at ten and a half, in 1880 at thirty-six, and 
in 1885 at twenty-eight millions of dollars. The excess of imports 
over exports during eighteen years of foreign trade amounts to fifty- 
one millions. Great Britain has been the largest importer, but her 
imports have fallen from nineteen millions in 1880 to twelve millions 
in 1885. The United States takes most of the silk and tea of Japan, 
and returns machinery and oil, two-thirds of the exports to Japan being 
in petroleum. Japan's silk crop, in all its products, is valued at eigh- 
teen and a half millions of dollars, and her tea crop at over thirty-five 
millions of pounds. While the yield of tea has increased threefold 
since 1868, the price has fallen one-half. In the manufacture and 
export of art- products there has been a marked increase. This is 
manifested not only in the customs returns, but in the houses, gar- 
dens, and museums of Europe and America. Japan is already recog- 



JAPAN IN 1886. 601 

nized as " the land of dainty decoration," and her art has added new 
elements of delight and surprise to the world's store. 

The social revolution which has affected all classes in the mikado's 
empire has given rise to new industries and handicrafts. The concen- 
tration of capital, the improvement of labor, and the elevation of the 
working-classes through the influence of schools and the cheapening 
of justice, have changed the entire industrial system. The pitiful tales 
of the laborer's wrongs, as told in Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan," 
seem now mythical. The introduction of machinery and the estab- 
lishment of large arsenals, founderies, mills, steamship and railway 
companies, seem to prove that Japan is not only providing for her 
own needs, but is developing her resources in order to enter as a com- 
petitor for the manufacturing supremacy among Asiatic nations. 
Fully equipped railroads, men-of-war, steam and sailing vessels, houses 
in European style, the product of native brain and muscle, are no 
longer curiosities. Patents are issued, inventions are encouraged, and 
museums are established in most of the large cities. In exhibitions 
of industry held in the provinces and capital, art, mechanical ingenu- 
ity, trades, and business are stimulated to higher excellence. In the 
expositions held in Europe, America, Australia, and India, the artistic 
ability, manual dexterity, and inventive genius of the Japanese have 
won abundant recognition. An exhibition of Asiatic products is to 
be held at Uyeno, in Tokio, in 1890. 

It is a noteworthy fact that the opening of Japan to the world was 
coincident with the age of iron, steel, steam, and electricity. The tel- 
egraph, introduced in 1869, has become a net-work of fifteen thousand 
miles of wire. Four cables connect the island empire to the Asian 
main-land, two making landfall at Vladivostok, one at Fusan in Corea, 
and one at Shanghai in China. The telephone and the electric light 
are seen in the large cities. Of railways there were, in the summer of 
1885, 265 miles open, 271 miles in course of construction, and 543 
miles in contemplation. Except the railway from Sapporo to Poronai 
in Yezo, these roads are constructed and equipped on the British 
model. Most of the survey, engineering, and constructive work, and 
all of the mechanical labor on the new roads, are done by natives. The 
trains, engines, and offices are worked by Japanese, and the wood and 
lighter metal portions are made at home, the heavy castings, engines, 
and rails being brought from Great Britain. The Japan Mail Shipping 
Company employs a large fleet of steamships and sailing-vessels in 
their coasting trade and passenger lines to China, Corea, and the island 



602 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

portions of the empire. In 1885 the postal department forwarded 
nearly one hundred million letters and packages. 

The return, in 1884, of the principal of the Shimonoseki Indemnity, 
so long unjustly withheld by the United States from Japan, has been 
of some assistance in carrying out her schemes of national improve- 
ment. Besides postal and money-order arrangement with the United 
States, a treaty of extradition was ratified by the Senate June 21, 
1886. This important diplomatic action places Japan, so far as the 
American Government is concerned, upon the same footing as that of 
the most enlightened nations in Europe. In these two acts the Unit- 
ed States leads the w ? ay in encouragement and recognition of Japan's 
purpose to assimilate her civilization to that of Christendom. 

Ever since the American flag was first carried round the world by 
Major Shaw, of the United States First Artillery, the part played by 
our country towards Asiatic nations has been in the main kindly, 
honorable, and unselfish. In the renovation of Japan this disposition 
to assist and not to retard her progress has been manifest. In 1878, 
in Tokio, the Japanese themselves, in their own language and way, 
celebrated, with congratulations and rejoicing, the quarter-century of 
the arrival of Commodore M. C. Perry in Yedo bay.* Our American 
teachers, missionaries, and scientific men in active labors on the soil ; 
our ministers in their diplomacy ; our hospitable schools, homes, and 
friends in need welcoming the students ;f our Government in treaties, 
have all shown a desire to assist Japan which is as sincere as it is 
morally beautiful. The standard political literature of the United 
States, translated and widely read, has done much to educate Japanese 



* See the "Life of Matthew Calbraith Perry, a Typical American Naval Offi- 
cer," by the author of this work. 

t The subject of the Japanese students abroad, how they came first to New 
Brunswick, N. J., with personal notes, statistics, etc., has been treated by the au- 
thor in a pamphlet published in 1886 by the Rutgers College Alumni Association. 
During the civil war in Japan the Japanese students were unable to receive any 
remittances. A company of gentlemen and ladies in the Reformed [Dutch] 
Church was formed to loan them money without regard to future repayment. 
This generous behavior was warmly appreciated by the mikado's government. 
On the eve of their departure from the United States, in 1872, the ambassadors 
Iwakura and Okubo, in a letter to the Rev. John Mason Ferris, D.D., wrote: 
"The generous conduct exhibited by yourself and other gentlemen in this in- 
stance, as well as in all matters of educational interest pertaining to the Japanese 
youth, will do more to correct this impression [that "foreign nations did not en- 
tertain kindly feelings toward our people"], and will do more to cement the 
friendly relations of the two countries, than all other influences combined." 



JAPAN IN 1886. 603 

opinion, and to show how liberty may exist under law. Science, relig- 
ion, the press, and public-schools are now training the Japanese peo- 
ple for their coming responsibilities. Nearly six hundred young men 
have, since the first exodus in 1865, been educated abroad at the pub- 
lic expense, most of them in the United States. An equal or greater 
number have attended foreign schools at their own charges, while the 
number of travellers and those who have intelligently studied western 
civilization cannot fall short of three thousand. The Japanese have 
now their legation, consulates, bank, clubs, and a Christian church in 
the United States. At least three thousand in various industrial 
capacities are living in Europe, China, Hawaii, and other countries. 
No year passes without seeing delegations of public inspectors or pri- 
vate students abroad, all restlessly eager to know the secrets of power 
possessed by the western nations. 

Though the Japanese long ago accepted the axiom that "education 
is the basis of all progress," yet their efforts in intellectual advance- 
ment have been impeded by their long use of the Chinese graphic 
system. The best years of a student's life must be devoted to learn- 
ing thousands of arbitrary characters in order to know how to read. 
To be a learned man in the Japan of to-day one must know, besides 
his own language, the cumbrous Chinese system of writing, with much 
of its body of learning, and, in addition, the English or some other 
modern European language. No youth are more burdened in ob- 
taining an education than are the Japanese. Hence the vast sac- 
rifice of health and life among them, and their early intellectual 
decay. 

Fully realizing these indisputable facts, the thinking men of this 
generation have resolved to break the yoke, to cast off the incubus, 
and to free the intellect of the future. In 1884 the Roma-ji Kai, or 
Roman-letter Association, was formed in Tokio, and has now six thou- 
sand members, native and foreign, among whom are all the mission- 
aries. Their purpose is to supplant the Chinese character and native 
syllabary by the Roman alphabet as the vehicle of Japanese thought. 
They have demonstrated that all possible sounds and vocal combinations 
can be expressed by using twenty-two letters. They print a newspa- 
per, edit text-books, and will transliterate popular and classic texts in 
the chosen letters of the alphabet now most widely used over all the 
earth. It has been proved that a child can learn to read the colloquial 
and book language in one-tenth of the time formerly required. The 
reform is making rapid progress ; and if, as seems very probable, the 



604 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

natives universally adopt the system, the gain to mind and body will 
be like tha-t of adding youth and years to a nation's life. 

By an imperial decree, issued November 29, 1884, the English lan- 
guage was made part of the order of studies in the common-schools. 
Over three million children and youth now attend daily the public 
institutions o-f learning. Education is both compulsory and free. 
English seems destined to become the speech of the educated and the 
vehicle of knowledge for all the mikado's subjects. 

The progress of Christianity shows no sign of check or halt. To 
all three forms of the faith converts are flocking, but indications seem 
to show at present (1886) a greater relative gain to the churches of 
Reformed Christianity. The majority of the two hundred Protestant 
missionaries now working in the white harvest -field of Japan are 
Americans. The writer saw the organization of the first Protestant 
Christian church in Japan in 1872. There are now nearly two hun- 
dred organized churches (about half of which are self-supporting), 
with a membership of over thirteen thousand. In 1885 the adult 
converts baptized numbered 3115. Native Christian helpers, assisting 
the foreign teachers, number about two hundred and fifty, of whom 
seventy are ordained ministers. The native Christians contributed 
in 1885 over twenty thousand dollars. The systems of heathenism 
are waning, and the chief supporters of Buddhism are now old men 
and women. The shaven-pated priests no longer hold the monopoly 
of fees for the performance of burial rites. Both belief and burial 
are now free. Religious liberty has become a fact. The attitude 
of the intelligent people is that of friendliness towards what they be- 
lieve to be the best religion and the one which Japan ought to have. 

Japan's opportunity seems unique in history. Under Divine Prov- 
idence she began renascence at a time coincident with the highest de- 
velopment of the forces — spiritual, mental, and material — that control 
human society. Christianity, the press, and steam are transforming 
the natiou. Under such continuing auspices people and rulers con- 
front the twentieth year of Meiji (Enlightened Peace), the twenty-five 
Jiundred and forty-seventh " from the foundation of the empire," and 
the eighteen hundred and eighty-seventh of the Christian era. 



JAPAN IN 1890. 605 



III. 

JAPAN IN 1890. 

Taking our survey of Japan in 1890, and writing in mid-August 
with the election returns before us, it seems that the one event which 
dwarfs all others since the year 1886, if not indeed since the Japanese 
became a nation, is the proclamation of the Constitution of February 
11, 1889. In accordance with this instrument, the emperor shares 
with his people the work and responsibilities of government. 

The possibility of an Asiatic nation's becoming constitutional and 
representative in government excites surprise and even incredulity in 
the minds of Western people. Since the solidity and permanence of 
any form of political organization must depend upon how far it is 
rooted in the past, and is in accord with the genius and necessities of 
a people, let us examine the process by which the present status of 
Japan has been attained. Is the Constitution of 1889 a manufacture 
or a growth? 

A rapid view shows us that in all Japanese history the central force 
has been the reverence of the people for the throne, while the actual 
administration has always been in the hands of some one family, clan, 
or clan combination. Passing over the "ages eternal" of mythology, 
and reckoning that the traditions of the house or tribe of Yamato are 
trustworthy from the fourth century, then the imperial line of Japan 
has been in existence, by blood and adoption, nearly sixteen hundred 
years. Yet, excepting the individuals Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, the 
actual rulers of the empire have been men of the Fujiwara, Taira, 
Minamoto, Hojo, Ashikaga, and Tokugawa families; and, since 1868, 
of the " Sa-cho-to," or the Satsuma, Choshiu, and Tosa clan combi- 
nation. For the first time in Japanese history the intermediary of 
family or clan control of the throne is now to be abolished. The 
meaning of the Constitution of 1889 — the expansion of the oath of 
1868 — is that the emperor invites his people to share with him the 
duties of government. This time it is not a family, a clan, or a com- 
bination, but the nobles, gentry, and people; but who are the people? 

As there has been no true history of Japan yet written — that is, one 
which sifts utterly the truth from early and late fable and mythology — 

39 



606 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

so there exists no accurate history of the Japanese people. What 
passes for history in the bald and dry native annals is the story of 
their conquerors, masters, and tax-collectors. We see clearly outlined, 
however, the separation of classes. At first there were only tribes 
and chiefs, the subjugators and the subjugated, agriculturists and no- 
mads. Then, in a long course of war, the soldiers, finding nearly per- 
manent employment, keep sword, spear, and armor, while the farm- 
ers clinging to hoe and hook, two classes are formed out of the mass 
of inhabitants beyond the court and beneath the nobles. Those men, 
whose business it was to samurai the mikado — that is, to serve or at- 
tend upon the orders of the emperor, made up the military class; 
the farmers, as being next below, forming the most ancient and hon- 
orable of the lower classes. Among the social grades, formed by 
gradual evolution and isolation during the intervals of peace, may be 
named the merchant, artisan, and people of other occupations, even 
to the outcast eta and hinin. Since 1868 all the grades below the sam- 
urai, or gentry, have been fused into one class, the hei-min, or people. 

The chief feature in the old Japanese political system was its ten- 
dency to dualism. The division of the people into soldiers and farm- 
ers, and of officers into civil and military, or huge and buke, was a 
process which, in the absence of foreign pressure or enemies, ended 
in a division of the functions of government into those of the throne 
and the camp, with two rulers and two capitals. Gradually this 
process of dualism became one of disintegration. Authority slipped 
from the centres, and was held locally by province lords, or daimids, 
each striving for himself; until, duarchy having degenerated into 
feudalism, Japan had no unity, but was a mass of warring fac- 
tions. Politically or socially, the comminution could no further go. 
Even when " the man on horseback " by military force was able to 
clamp together some sort of a political edifice, the order thus kept 
was only of the sort possible when there was no pressure from the 
outside, and when no foreign enemy threatened. For over two cen- 
turies the military despotism of Tokugawa held in peace by a most 
elaborate and complicated system an empire which consisted of about 
three hundred petty kingdoms, within each of which was a social con- 
glomeration of a dozen or more different classes. 

Old Japan was a museum of political curiosities, while on the 
graded shelves of the social classification w T as catalogued every speci- 
men, from a god to the creatures labelled " not human." Under out- 
ward splendor and picturesqueness, only a few far-seeing men saw 



JAPAN IN 1890. 607 

that, first of all, Japan needed unity; fewer discern 2d that the coun- 
try must have government by men and not by custom ; fewest yet 
that to be a great nation Japan must have a people. 

Heretofore "public opinion" has been the exclusive property of 
the samurai. " The people," in the modern, not to say the American, 
sense, have not yet grown to consciousness, though the 11th of Feb- 
ruary, 1889, was the day of birth. Nineteen-twentieths of the inhab- 
itants of Japan have been simply burden -bearers and tax -payers; 
now they are becoming " the people." Japan, having cast off dual- 
ism, feudalism, and other divisive elements, has entered upon a higher 
process of unity. The people are now learning who and what they are. 

Glancing now at the various forms of government, we discern in 
the early ages a rudimentary feudalism, probably brought by the 
Yamato conquerors from the Amoor or Sungari valleys. After this 
follow in order centralized monarchy, duarchy, elaborate feudalism, 
and then, in 1868, a composite government formed on the theory of a 
union of the throne and " the people " — that is, the samurai. In this 
government, the chief intermediaries being the triple premiership and 
other various minor and temporary political expedients, the actual ad- 
ministration was carried on by able samurai, formerly men of low 
social rank, but well fitted for the work in hand. In a survey of the 
twenty-one years of the government of Meiji several facts stand out 
prominently ; the first is that the former ruling class of daimios and 
other nobles, and the people, have had very little, if any, political 
power; second, that the Meiji statesmen have shown in their actions 
a curious, perhaps admirable, combination of opportunism and far- 
sighted statecraft ; third, that natural force, ability, and education have 
driven out incompetency ; fourth, that despite all obstacles, they have 
led the nation steadily forward to the goal set before them at the 
Restoration, and far beyond it ; fifth, that Japan is to-day vastly less 
the land of lies and sham than in the old days of seclusion, and is 
more and more the country of reality and truth. 

In brief, Old Japan was the result of certain conditions, chief of 
which was isolation from the rest of the world. So long as no leaven 
from without was dropped into the mass, the old constitution of soci- 
ety and government could remain stable. When, however, in addi- 
tion to the movements in the minds of scholars and thinkers previous 
to a.d. 1853, which of themselves would have precipitated revolution 
and compelled reconstruction, there was poured into Japan the fer- 
ment of Christian civilization, the entire strnotnre was doomed. A 



608 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

new society, as well as a new government, must arise. Despotism, 
division, and sectionalism had to give way in order that national unity 
should emerge. The old society, split up by feudalism, priestcraft, 
and ignorance, must be first simplified, and by education, enlighten- 
ment, and freedom the nation be strengthened and uplifted. Public 
opinion, as the basis of national action, must be the real, though regu- 
lated, feeling of all, from emperor to eta. In the attainable ideal sys- 
tem the humblest member of the body politic is a man, and the high- 
est nothing more. 

That there were men who before 1853, the year of Perry's arrival 
at Uraga, thus thought and felt, and to this end devoted their lives, is 
manifest from tradition, history, and the writings of such men as Ta- 
keno Choye, Watanabe Kuazan, Hashimoto Sanai, Fujita Seinoshin, 
Sakama Shuri, Yoshida Toraijiro, Yokoi Heishiro, Matsudaira Yoshi- 
naga, daimio of Echizen, and many other noble morning-stars of refor- 
mation. Under various pretexts, whether of opposition to foreigners 
or to the Bakufu, these far-sighted patriots " veiled their larger pur- 
pose." Highest in rank and influence, and most eager for national 
unity and representative government, the pupil of Yokoi Heishiro, and 
probably the ablest of all the daimios, was Matsudaira, lord of Echi- 
zen, who had already begun to form, in his own dominions, before 
Perry's arrival, a miniature of the New Japan of the Meiji era. He 
was one of the first to propose to the Yedo Government the calling of 
a council of daimios to deliberate upon the American proposal to en- 
ter into treaty relations. In thus seeking the "public opinion" of 
the country as represented by the feudal clans, and in the holding, 
during many days and nights in 1854, of the great council of both 
active and retired daimios, in Yedo, we see the first step towards the 
national parliament of 1890. 

Yet this very step revealed the weakness of the despotism of Yedo 
thus called to confront a new problem. To behold the Yedo auto- 
crats, who had hitherto by force required only instant obedience of 
their vassals, humbly inviting them to conference was a startling 
revelation to men who watched every movement of the Bakufu. The 
samurai were aroused at once, but finding few or no leaders among 
their masters, the daimios, who, with the noteworthy exceptions of 
Echizen, Mito, Hizen, Tosa, and Uwajima, formed a Sahara of medi- 
ocrity, the thinking men turned for leadership to the court nobles in 
Kioto, and then strove to win their feudal masters to their side. 

When confronted by Townsend Harris, and by the envoys of Eu- 



JAPAN IN 1890. 609 

rope who followed after, who demanded residence and trade, there 
was a choice, to the bakufu, between two methods of policy. One 
was represented by Ii Kamon no Kami, who, with probably a noble 
motive, chose the method of the autocrat, increasing despotism un- 
der the plea of necessity. The other method was represented in the 
person of Matsudaira, daimio of Echizen,* who had national modern and 
Western ideas, and believed that all acts of government should be upon 
the basis of public opinion. The one was destiued to illustrate the 
truth that government in Old Japan was "despotism tempered by as- 
sassination." The other lived to see grandly illustrated the capacity 
of the nation for representative and constitutional government, dying 
in 1890. Heartily trusting the wisdom and abilities of the enlight- 
ened men of the southern and western clans, he, when Supreme Direc- 
tor of Affairs, in 1862, released them and the daimidsfrom Yedo, made 
Kioto the real capital, and there opened the then possible avenues for 
the expression of opinion. 

Largely through the influence of Echizen, while resident at the palace 
during several months, the acts of the court were done in accordance 
with the policy suggested by the clans. In the deliberations of the 
men who formed the Government proclaimed January 3,1868, Echizen, 
with his troops, being then guardian of the palace, this enlightened 
daimio, besides pleading for union of all the political forces, old and new, 
without civil war or estrangement, urged above all things the necessity 
of a national parliament. Though the outbreak of war and the shedding 
of blood were keen disappointments to him, he persevered in the work 
of national unity and reconstruction. By an oath of the mikado (p. 318) 



* The Marquis Matsudaira Toshinaga, or Shungaku, whose portrait is on page 
308, was born in Yedo, a.d. 1827, and died in Tokio, June 2, 1890. In 1838 he 
was adopted as a son by the daimio of Echizen, and in 1843 became active ruler 
in Fukui. He introduced various reforms in the arts of development and de- 
fence. He built a gun factory, cannon foundery, and powder-mill; introduced 
vaccination, Dutch medical practice and military tactics, the study of Dutch, 
and the translation of Dutch books ; organized a hospital, a medical school, a 
college of literature, invited Tokoi Heishiro, the renowned Higo teacher, to be 
his counsellor, and made Fukui a hospitable place for scholars and far-sighted 
patriots. All this was done before 1854. At first opposed to foreign intercourse 
on account of the weakness of Japan, and the opponent of Ii Kamon no Kami, 
he became, in 1862, one of the most progressive men in Japan. After holding 
many offices of high honor under the government of Meiji, including the presi- 
dency of the university and head of the revenue department, he received from 
the mikado the highest honors possible to a living subject, rising to the second 
degree of the first rank. 



610 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the five principles of the new government which form this Constitu- 
tion of 1868 and the basis of New Japan — expressed in their verbal form 
by Yuri Kinmasa, a samurai of Echizen, and pupil of Yokoi Heishiro 
— were published and established. In accordance with the promise 
that " a deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures be 
decided by public opinion," the first parliament was opened in Kioto 
in 1868, the representation being in the persons of samurai only, each 
clan, according to its numbers, sending one, two, or three members. 
When Yedo was made the kid, or capital, and named Tokio, a second 
parliament of two hundred and seventy-six members, two hundred of 
whom were present, convened April 18, 1869. This new body was 
named Shiugi-In, or House of Commons. After discussing various 
questions, especially that of a new Constitution, and rejecting the 
proposition to relinquish the wearing of swords (p. 400), this assem- 
bly died a natural death. It was, in the temper of its members, so far 
behind the needs of the time, and of the ideas of the progressive 
leaders in the Government, that it was likely to defeat the very ends 
proposed in its creation. 

Although the petition of Goto, Yuri, and others, in 1874 (p. 574), 
was rejected, and substitutes for a national assembly were supposed to 
exist in the Sa-In, or Senate so called, formed in 1871, its members being 
nominated by the premier, and in its successor the Genro-In, also called 
a Senate, yet no decisive movement towards national representation was 
made until 1873, when a meeting of the governors of the prefectures 
was called in Tokio (p. 587). Nevertheless, in the creation, in April, 
1875, of the Genro-In, or Senate, and the Dai Shin-In, or Supreme 
Court of Appeals, and the promise in the same decree to "gradually 
confer upon the nation a constitutional form of government," we see 
the first clear step towards the modern division of government into the 
executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In July, 1875, the promise 
to call a council of provincial officials " so that the feelings of the 
people may be made known, and the public welfare attained," was 
fulfilled. The seventy province-governors were addressed by the em- 
peror, and Kido was made president. Actually more influential upon 
the people, however, than this too conservative body was the action of 
certain advisers of the governors coming up with them, who met in 
Tokio, and petitioned the Government for a national assembly based on 
popular suffrage. Adjourned in 1877 (p. 589), it was not in 1878 ac- 
cepted as the boon desired by the nation, even though the foundations 
of local government by popular representation (p. 589) were laid in the 



JAFAN IN 1890. 



611 



decree of the emperor. Then followed two years of amazing activity 
in agitation for the long-desired parliament. Led by Itagaki, Okuma, 
Goto, Soyejima, and others, public opinion, to which nobles, gentry, and 
commoners contributed, compelled the proclamation of October 12, 
1887, naming 1890 as the year of the national assembly. 

While thus, on the one hand, the political education of the people in 
local affairs was provided for, so that the nation should have at least 
eight years of preparatory training in representative government, 
Count Ito Hirobumi was sent to Europe to study and compare the con- 
stitutions and laws of Western nations. Shortly after his return, in 
1884, it became increasingly evident that the Constitution of 1890 
would approach the German rather than the British model. In De- 
cember, 1885 (p. 599), a long step forward was taken in the reorganiza- 
tion of the cabinet. During the next four years Ito and Inouye were 
able guardians of the national policy. Especially were their abilities 
manifest during the protracted treaty negotiations, and the intense 
political excitement consequent upon the desire of the liberal agitators 
that English rather than Prussian principles should be emphasized in 
the new Constitution. The fears of the liberals led by Count Itagaki 
of Tosa were, however, confirmed by the remarkable imperial rescript 
of December 25, 1887, by which several hundred persons were ordered 
away from the capital.* 

In April, 1888, a new body called the Privy Council was formed, of 
which Ito became president, while Kuroda filled the position of pre- 
mier. In this body active debate upon the new Constitution began in 
May, and proceeded until February 11, 1889, when the long-awaited 
instrument was proclaimed. 

Exactly to the day, almost to the very hour, thirty-five years after 
the American treaty-ships were in sight of Idzu, the emperor Mutsu- 
hito took oath to maintain inviolate the government according to the 
Constitution, the documents attesting which he, before the assembled 
audience of nobles, officers, and foreign envoys, handed to Kuroda, 
the Minister-president of State. Extraordinary popular demonstra- 



*A discussion of "Coercion in Japan," in The Nation of February 16, 1888, 
precipitated a violent newspaper controversy on both sides of the Pacific. Among 
other protests it was declared that the article had "a curious air of anachronism 
about it." Yet within two years, besides several futile attempts at violence or 
assassination, the lives of two cabinet ministers (Mori and Okuma) were assailed, 
the one by knife and the other by bomb ; the ministry then in power was replaced 
by one more radical, while a strong reaction in public sentiment followed. 



612 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

tions of joy and approval followed in the capital and provinces. For 
the first time in Japanese history the emperor rode beside the em- 
press in public. Posthumous titles of nobility granted to the dead, 
illustrious rewards to the living, amnesty to prisoners, and other marks 
of imperial favor carried joy to many hearts. The horrible blot on 
the day's beautiful record was the assassination of the Minister of 
Education, Arinori Mori, by a Shintoist fanatic. 

The Constitution proper consists of sixty-six articles,* treating of 
the emperor, the rights and duties of subjects, the Imperial Diet, the 
ministers of state and the Privy Council, the judicature and finance, 
with supplementary rules. With the laws proclaimed at the same 
time, the articles number three hundred and thirty-two. In the first 
chapter relating to the emperor the foundation-principle of the whole 
past of the nation is reaffirmed. " The mikado's person is sacred and 
inviolable. He combines in himself the rights of sovereignty, and ex- 
ercises them according to the provisions of the present Constitution." 
Japan is still "the mikado's empire." 

Hitherto the rights of the common people have never been acknowl- 
edged, defined, or guaranteed. Chapter II. is of immediate interest 
to thirty-eight out of the forty millions of Japanese people. Their 
status is to be determined by law. They have the right of abode and 
of changing the same. Except according to law, they are not to be 
arrested, detained, tried, or punished. Trial is always to be by judges 
determined by law. The right of domicile and freedom from search, 
the secrecy and inviolability of letters, the freedom of religious belief, 
and the liberty of speech, writing, publishing, public meeting, associa- 
tion, and petition within the limits of law, are guaranteed to every 
subject. Under the sun of Japan these are indeed new things. 

The Diet assembles once a year, and is opened, closed, prorogued, 
and dissolved by the emperor, to whom the initiative of amendments 
to the Constitution belongs. Deliberations are public. The ministers 
of state may take seats and speak in either House, but are responsible 

* See the writer's article in The Forum of April, 1889, entitled " Representative 
Government in Japan"; the pamphlet containing the text of the Constitution 
(Kelly & Walsh, Yokohama); " Commentaries on the Constitution of the Empire 
of Japan," by Count Ito Hirobumi, translated into English by Miyoji Ito, Tokio, 
1889; and Prof. Basil Hall Chamberlain's "Things Japanese," Tokio and Lon- 
don, 1890. This latter work is a mirror of contemporary Japan, and an encyclo- 
paedia of valuable information. Also, the letters of J. H. Wigmore in The Na- 
tion, July, and passim, 1890 ; and " Constitution of the Empire of Japan," Johns 
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 



JAPAN IN 1890. 613 

to the emperor and not to the Diet. In the judicature exercised by 
courts of law in the name of the emperor the trials are public, and 
the judges are persons properly qualified, and irremovable except for 
offence. Expenses and revenue of the State require the consent of tho 
Imperial Diet, but the fixed expenditures based by the Constitution 
upon the powers appertaining to the emperor, the organization of the 
different branches of the administration, and the salaries of all civil 
and military officers, such expenditures as may have arisen by effect 
of law, or that relate to the legal obligations of " the Government," 
shall neither be rejected nor reduced by the Diet without the concur- 
rence of the Government. Expenses of the Imperial House do not re- 
quire the consent of the Diet except for increase. The chief weapon 
of a hostile majority — the stoppage of supplies to the ministry in 
power — is thus removed. 

The government of Japan, then, is organized on the basis of imme- 
morial tradition, with modern features that follow the German rather 
than the English model. A definite amount of executive power is 
reserved to the emperor and the ministers who are responsible to 
him. Under the written lines of the Constitution are the watermarks 
of compromise, and the party lines are marked out by the instru- 
ment itself. Against the rushing stream of democracy, like their 
own mountain torrents, the conservatives will be the dikes (or ja-kago, 
p. 531) to keep hard aud fast the imperial prerogative. The pro- 
gressives will at once begin to demand greater powers for the Diet, a 
broader electoral base, and greater control of tne finances. Revolu- 
tions move but in one direction. 

The Upper House, or (mixed) House of Peers, consists partly of he- 
reditary, partly of elected, and partly of nominated members. Mem- 
bers of the imperial family, princes, and marquises sit for life. A cer- 
tain number of counts, viscounts, and barons, elected by the members of 
their respective orders, serve for seven years. Men of ability and learn- 
ing nominated by the emperor are life members. A novel and interest- 
ing feature is that from each of the imperial cities and prefectures a 
member (noble, gentleman, or commoner) elected by the fifteen highest 
tax-payers may serve for seven years. The combined number of nomi- 
nated and elected men is not to exceed the number of members hold- 
ing titles of nobility. 

The House of Representatives consists of about three hundred mem- 
bers, at least thirty years of age, who pay national taxes to the amount 
of fifteen yen, or dollars, and serve four years. Electors must be twenty- 



614 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

five years old, and pay national taxes to the amount of fifteen dol- 
lars. The average number of representatives from each prefecture is 
not quite seven, the larger having from ten to thirteen members, and 
three cities (Tokio, Ozaka, and Kioto) twelve, ten, and seven, respective- 
ly. In 1887 there were 1,581,726 persons in the empire paying taxes 
to the amount of over five yen, of whom 1,488,700 had the right of 
voting for members of local assemblies. Of those paying over ten 
dollars in taxes there were 882,517, of whom 802,975 were eligible 
to vote, or sit after election in the local assemblies. In these local 
legislatures 2172 members sat, the number of standing committees 
being 292. The electorate of the National Diet numbers probably 
300,000. 

With quietness and order the threefold election passed off in July, 
1890, and we are now able to see the general complexion of the first 
Imperial Diet, and to form some idea of the eagerness of the Japanese 
to avail themselves of their new privileges. About eighty-five per cent, 
of eligible voters availed themselves of the franchise, and the number 
of candidates in each district varied from two to fifteen, there being 
in Tokio ninety-two applicants for the twelve seats, and in eighty 
other districts three hundred and thirteen. 

For the House of Peers, so called, besides the nine members of the 
imperial family, ten princes, and twenty-one marquises, who sit by he- 
reditary right, fifteen counts, seventy viscounts, and twenty barons, 
elected by members of their own orders (the nobles numbering nearly 
six hundred, and one-fifth of these electives being chosen), there were 
chosen out of the forty-five fully organized divisions of the empire, by 
the fifteen highest tax-payers in each, forty-five members, of whom 
thirty-three were hei-min, or commoners, eleven were of the gentry, and 
one was a noble. Other members are to be nominated by the emperor. 

Among the successful candidates for the House of Representatives, 
a rough classification shows as great variety of political opinions as of 
occupations. In a word, all of the existing classes of the people are well 
represented. Without space to analyze the political parties, we may 
say that at present, far more than in Western countries, the so-called 
national parties are moulded by local and personal influences rather than 
by abstract questions of policy. "The Government" must confront a 
majority hostile in form, the election showing conclusively that the 
voting of the people is an expression of their own will, and not that 
either of the ministers in office or of the higher powers in authority. 
To be in any way connected with governmental employ was, in almost 



JAPAN IN 1890. 615 

every case, to invite certain defeat ; while on the other hand few of the 
old party leaders were chosen as standard-bearers in the new field. All 
things considered, the issue is most hopeful to the lover of humanity 
and well-wisher of the Japanese people. 

In the reconstruction of her foreign policy Japan has endeavored to 
have the treaties revised in the interests of mutual justice, to secure the 
removal of the extra-territorial ity clauses, and her treatment by the na- 
tious of Christendom as their equal. The long and weary question 
cannot here be discussed, but is probably not now far from solution. 
Since 1881 the new Criminal Code, based on the best principles of West- 
ern jurisprudence, has been in successful operation ; and on the 2 2d of 
April, 1890, the new Code of Civil Procedure, and the first portion of 
the Civil Code, were promulgated. The fruit of fifteen years' labor of 
foreign and native experts in law are thus set forth. In both the let- 
ter of the documents and the spirit of their execution the sincerity of 
the Japanese in thus preparing to live up to what is expected of them 
by the world is clearly manifest. Contrariwise, the confidence of 
foreign nations is equally shaken when such relapses, on the part of 
"the Government," into the vices of despotism and feudalism as the 
issue of the so-called Peace Regulations of December 25, 1887, or when 
the excesses of the so-shi, such as the assassination of Arinori Mori, and 
the attempt by dynamite on the life of Okuma, October 18, 1889, chill 
the hopes of those who believe in the right of Japan to claim equality 
with Western nations. 

For a solid basis to our hope in Japan's future we look to the large 
Christian community now increasing daily. In June, 1 890, the churches 
of reformed Christianity had 34,000 members enrolled ; those of the 
Roman form of the faith over 50,000 souls under their care ; while 
17,000 or more receive spiritual nurture according to the Greek meth- 
od. These subjects of the mikado make in all a nominal household of 
a half -million who hold the promise of this life and of that which is 
to come through Jesus Christ. The celebration of the complete Bible 
in Japanese took place in Tokio, February 3, 1888. Already the fer- 
tilization of the native intellect by Christianity and the Bible is mani- 
fest in the new literature. Qualities utterly absent from the older 
writings are discerned in the essays, philosophy, history, fiction, and 
journalism. Christian men are leaders in thought and letters. The 
Japanese are even beginning to write critical history. 

During these exciting years of 1889 and 1890, amid the ferment of 
politics, and the fierce discussion of treaty revision which has wrecked 



616 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

more than one ministry, a strong movement to preserve what is best 
in the national life, in language, art, government, and every depart- 
ment of achievement has been in progress. Such a movement natu- 
rally exhibited some phases interpreted by foreigners to mean reac- 
tion ; but underneath much that is condemned by the best men of the 
nation there is a larger purpose that will command the sympathy and 
admiration of the world. No nation can be great that merely imi- 
tates and borrows. With wise selection the Japanese nationalistic 
movement means, we think, the proving of all things, the holding fast 
that which is good. 

Strong in faith and hope of the prosperous future of this most in- 
teresting of Asiatic nations, and in undisguised sympathy with her 
noble purpose, we leave our inspiring theme of representative Japan. 
From no nation of Christendom will Japan receive more hearty good 
wishes than from that in which Matthew Calbraith Perry was born, 
and which of modern States first began its life and has longest lived 
under a written Constitution. 



JAPAN IN 1894. 617 



IV. 

JAPAN IN 1894. 

Forty years ago the whistle of the American steamers awoke Old 
Japan out of her hermit sleep. On the 8th day of July, 1853, the 
four men-of-war arrived at ITraga. The signal rockets from the forts 
were answered by the rattle of cables and the splash of anchors, and 
Japan's new era began. 

That 8th day of July prefigured the forty years of history which 
we now survey. The day was ushered in with fog so thick: that the 
land was hidden. Only at intervals could the rocky outlines of the 
coast be discerned. Gradually through the sun-rent curtains of mist 
the mountains became visible. At meridian Fuji's glorious form 
loomed into view, and by mid-afternoon the whole panorama of the 
landscape and blue waters greeted the eye. At sunset the peerless 
mountain wore a crown of glory. From midnight until four o'clock 
a.m. appeared from the south-west a meteoric sphere of light that 
moved towards the north-east, illuminating the whole atmosphere, 
finally falling towards the sea and vanishing. The next day was one 
of sunny splendor. 

So has it been with Japan, political and social. Foreigners in the 
morning of their life on the soil found themselves in a fog of igno- 
rance. Everything Japanese seemed veiled in mystery. Hiding the 
real facts was " a vague embodiment of something which was called 
'The Law'; but what that * Law' was, by whom enacted, and under 
what sanctions enforced, no one could tell, though all seemed to stand 
in awe of it as something of superhuman efficacy ; its mysteriousness 
was only equalled by the abject submission it received." No country 
was then less worthy of its numerous names, all making boast of the 
sun, of light, of radiancy. Japan was then the Land of Darkness. 

Gradually the dawn broke, the fogs of mystery were riven, and the 
real Japan was discovered. Yet before the cloudless day was ushered 
in, that great meteoric movement from the south-west towards the 
north-east — the uprising of the great clans which made New Japan 
and seated the Emperor in Tokio — took place. Like the coming of 
the Sun -goddess out of her cave was the emergence of the mikado 



618 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

into the white light of public duty. The mystery-play was over. To- 
day Japan is worthy of her name — Sunrise. It is the 9th of July. 

Now, information on a thousand subjects is freely furnished by the 
Government. Foreign scholars have penetrated the arcana of litera- 
ture, have challenged and dissected tradition, chronology, and claims 
even of the Heaven-descended dynasty. The Japanese themselves, ap- 
plying Western methods of collection, comparison, classification, and 
research to their national treasures, land, language, and history, are 
coming to self-revelation as never before. They are seeing themselves 
as they are. The process is not wholly safe to individuals, and free- 
dom of speech and of the press are not yet what we count freedom. 
Yet there is at present probably as much liberty as can safely be en- 
joyed. One signal proof of the willingness of the Government to let 
light shine on what was once hidden, is its annual publication, "Re- 
sume Statistigue de V Empire du JaponP * 

Japan as wonder-land is as surprising in things vanished as in things 
created during these forty years. Gone are Tycoon, the duarchy, 
feudalism, the old codes, customs, ideals, personalities. In their places 
has come one government differentiated in three functions — executive, 
legislative, and judicial — with all the outward appliances of modern 
civilization. New social, industrial, and ethical systems are in proc- 
ess of formation. With much of the ancient and picturesque igno- 
rance and superstition have disappeared some things that were worth 
keeping, yet in New Japan the new codes, ideals, and ambitions are 
vast improvements on those of the old days. The Japanese have de- 
termined to take their place not only among the nations of the world, 
but of Christendom, and to be found in the front rank. Nothing less 
than this will satisfy them. Already, the record of forty years is 
amazing, and the surprises are not all over. 

Yet who have been the creators of New Japan ? The natives or the 



* This manual for 1893, packed with figures skilfully tabulated, maps, diagrams, tables of 
weights and measures, comparatives, averages, totals, and other requisites for the student's 
eye, tells an eloquent story of Japan's progress. Area, population, agriculture and indus- 
try, commerce and public improvements, facilities of transportation by land and sea, pri- 
vate and public finances, education, religion, hygiene, charities, with details of justice, po- 
lice administration, army and navy, and civil service at home and abroad, make a statistical 
appendix to this work of ours no longer necessary. This invaluable publication has for 
seven years been compiled and edited by Mr. Ishibashi, chief of the Imperial Bureau of 
Statistics in TOkiO, author with Mr. E. Satow of a pocket dictionary of English-Japanese. 
I had the pleasure of first meeting Mr. Ishibashi when he was chief interpreter at the For- 
eigu Office, in 1871, Mr. TSrashima MuuSnori being then Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs 
(pp. 399, 402). 



JAPAN IN 1894. 619 

foreigners ? Would the Japanese of themselves have attained to the 
status already reached in this twenty-seventh year of Meiji? Are 
there not, apart from exterior influences, a power and a personality on 
the soil of the New that were not in the Old Japan ? As secret, as 
concealed as leaven, were they not as potent? 

Japan is not unique in history, not a case of entire self-reformation. 
Without the leaven from Christendom this oriental lump would not 
be as it is seen and felt to-day. The aliens employed by the Japanese 
have not told their story, yet, as Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, in 
his "Things Japanese," says, "The foreign employe is the creator of 
New Japan." As certainly as on the foundation-stones of the Japan 
of the Meiji era belong the names of Rai, Sakuma, Yoshida, Yokoi, 
Fukuzawa, and a host of others who, while living, were unrewarded 
non-officeholders, so also should be inscribed those of the Yatoi To-jin, 
or " hired foreigners." Whether in Japanese pay or not, as hirelings, 
or as guests, or as forces healthfully stimulating, who from their own 
governments or societies received stipend, or self-impelled wrought 
for Japan's good, their work abides. The world may forget the singer, 
but the song is still heard. 

For over a century the earnest thinkers of Japan went to school to 
the Dutch at Nagasaki. These Europeans, professing to be neither 
benefactors nor missionaries, but only merchants and physicians, gave 
their pupils a long object-lesson in civilization. Pilgrims thirsting 
for knowledge came from all over the empire to learn of the Holland- 
ers, and dispersing homeward filled the country with centres of light. 
Maligned by their enemies in faith and by their rivals in commerce, 
the work of the Dutchmen for a century in supplying a hermit nation 
with books, science, and medicine, has been unknown or underrated. 
The Dutch laid the foundations of scientific knowledge of the Japanese 
and their country, secured the abolition of the insults to Christianity, 
and made the way easy for Commodore Perry and Townsend Harris. 
It would be hard to find a single native pioneer of progress in the 
early years of Meiji — statesman, diplomatist, military leader, physician, 
man of science, interpreter, author, preacher — who was not directly in- 
debted to the Dutch. 

Not, however, until the decade following the apparition of Perry 
did foreign influence become an overwhelming force and the foreign 
employe a permanent figure. Beginning probably with the American 
Professor Pnmpelly, who wrote "Across America and Asia," the Japan- 
ese Government and individuals enlisted a great army of auxiliaries 



620 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

from abroad. In what branch of science or friendly service, are the 
makers of New Japan not indebted? English scholarship as repre- 
sented by Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, McClatchie, Gubbins, and others, 
first rent the veil from ancient Japan, and gave to native students the 
impetus to that critical and comparative study of their own language 
and traditions which they are now beginning bravely to pursue. 
British experts organized the navy and trained the lads that are now 
officers and the junk-sailors that are now smart marines and skilful 
artillerists, created and equipped the Osaka mint, struck the coin- 
age of which no Japanese is ashamed, and established the vernacular 
newspaper, now the mighty power that even prime-ministers and Em- 
peror must reckon with. Frenchmen reorganized the army, codified the 
law, and built the Yokoska dockyard. The Germans have directed the 
higher medical education of the country. " Not less a feat than the 
reform of the entire educational system was chiefly the work of a 
handful of Americans." The posts, the telegraphs, the railways, the 
light -houses; the trigonometrical, geological, and geodetic surveys; 
improved mining methods, prison reform, sanitary reform, cotton and 
paper mills; manufactories of many kinds, chemical laboratories, water- 
works and harbor-works, and a hundred other improvements which 
have enriched the country, and which strike the eye and excite the ad- 
miration of the tourist — "all are the creation of the foreign employes 
of the Japanese Government." * 

True type of the foreigners who not merely advised or inspected, 
but who wrought by example and precept, patiently teaching technical 
details, was the German Dr. Gottfried von Wagener, whose personal 
friendship the writer enjoyed while a fellow - worker in the Imperial 
University from 1871 to 1874. Dr. Wagener, born in Germany in 



* It is not probable that the future Japanese historian will deign to use as important ma- 
terial for his narrative any of the little accordeon-like publications entitled Yatoi To-jin 
such as we have before us. While the throne and the figure-heads and a multitude of 
names such as already clog the pages of the Japanese annals will doubtless occupy vast 
space on the historian's page, yet a glance at the little brochure giving names, salaries, and 
occupation of the "hired foreigners," is like a visit to the power-house of an electric rail- 
way. Here are the generating forces, and the wheels, belts, and motors, while to the out- 
side world the brilliancy and speed of the moving trains astonish the spectator. Here are 
some of the names picked out at random : Pumpelly, Tracey, Hawes, Douglas, Cargill, 
Savatier, Verbeck, Briukley, Brnnton, Knippiug, Capron, Antisell, Eldredge, Scott, Wil- 
son, Simmons, Geerts, Wagener, House, Divers, Gower, Lyman, Murray, Smith, Boisson- 
nade, Palmer, Chamberlain, Midler, Hoffman, McCartee, Gowland, Milne, Mason, Clark, 
Clarke, Tngalls, Baelz, Conder, Miquel, Bertin, etc., etc., with scores of others who have 
during longer or shorter periods of time imparted the secrets of Western science, learning, 
or technical skill, and patiently shown the Japanese how to do likewise. 



JAPAN IN 1894. 62 1 

1831, was a master of applied science when, in 1870, he entered the 
service of the daimio of Hizen to improve the methods of porcelain 
manufacture at Arita, in which he happily succeeded so far as the re- 
sources of that province would then admit. One of his notable tri- 
umphs was in the introduction of coal as fuel. Besides his services in 
education at Tokio and Kioto, he assisted materially in preparing 
the art exhibits of the Japanese at Vienna and Philadelphia. He 
established the Artisan's School in Tokio, revolutionized the cloisonne- 
enamel industry, and invented the famous Asahi yaki (Morning-sun 
faience), or pottery with varied colors under the glaze. The writer 
has never known a man who combined more nobly for the benefit of 
his fellow-men self-absorption in science with absolute self-effacement 
in disposition. He died at Suruga Dai in Tokio, November 8, 1892. 
In the higher work of moral education and reform, the Christian 
missionary is a noble figure. The first teachers of language, literature, 
science, and philosophy ; the first dispensers of medicine and healing, 
active in charitable relief, constantly stimulating to the Government 
and people by their hospitals, schools, colleges, preaching and advo- 
cacy of moral reforms ; training tens of thousands of natives in the 
arts of self-government and parliamentary procedure ; supplanting the 
old Confucian and Chinese codes of ethics with nobler ideals and 
practice, the teachers of Christianity have prepared the nation for 
the adoption of a higher form of civilization. Greater even than the 
wants of modern material forces and appliances, by the confessions of 
her own most thoughtful men, is Japan's need of moral power. 

True types of the servant of servants, for Christ's sake, to the peo- 
ple of Japan, are Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Hepburn, who have done so much 
to break down the barriers between natives and foreigners. After 
thirty-three years of service in school, dispensary, home, and study, Dr. 
Hepburn left Yokohama for the United States in October, 1892. The 
story of the "American Missionary in Japan," of influences and results, 
and of native appreciation, has been modestly told in part by Dr. M. 
L. Gordon.* Since the reaction against everything foreign, which 
began in 1888, the Christian churches and schools have suffered. Yet 
the loss, or rather the retarded acceleration of progress, signifies " no 
real change of purpose in the national mind." " Japan for the Japan- 
ese " does not mean more than healthy patriotism. Digestion and as- 
similation are as necessary as reception. Christianity, now rooted in 



An American Missionary in Japan." Boston. 1892. 
40 



622 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

the soil and no longer a mere exotic, can live its own life in the hearts 
and the minds of the people. Christian theology can live and grow 
expressed in terms of far-oriental as well as in Greek or Latin termi- 
nology. The Japanese Christians will create their own theology and 
adapt it to the national consciousness more healthfully, truthfully, 
and spiritually than can foreigners. In treating of " The Theological 
Movement in Japan," * we have summed up our impressions as fol- 
lows : " The Japanese genius, as vitalized by the Holy Spirit, tends 
to assimilation rather than to mere acceptance. Vigorously has the 
Christian consciousness of Japan cast off the sectarian and provincial 
creeds of merely English-speaking Christendom. Refusing the swad- 
dling-bands of the Scotch, Yankee, and Anglican phases of the faith, 
it has sought the simplicity that is Christ. . . . They, with the Bible 
in hand, sought the shortest path to Christ." Already the record of 
independent native Christian life, work, and literature is a noble one. 
It shows clearly that the believers in Christ in Japan want the Chris- 
tianity of Christ not in non-essential and accidental alien forms, but in 
its reality and purity as far as it can be apprehended and assimilated 
by them. 

The statistics for the year ending March 31, 1893, furnished by 
Rev. Henry Loomis of Yokohama, show that the Christians of the Ro- 
man order number 44,812 in 244 congregations; those of the Greek 
order number 20,235 in 219 congregations; those of the Reformed 
order number 35,534 in 365 local churches. Baptisms for 1892 were : 
for the Roman, Greek, and Reformed phases of the one faith, 5324, 
952, and 3*731, respectively. Thirty-one organizations, usually called 
" Protestant," illustrate more of Christian unity than diversity, since 
five of these divisions comprise 33,390 Christians, all the self-support- 
ing native churches being affiliated with these groups. At present, 
the religion of Jesus in Japan is better represented by the parable of 
the leaven than by that of the mustard-seed. It is influencing the 
national life deeply, while not phenomenally increasing its superficial 
area. Buddhism, still the religion of the majority of the mikado's 
subjects, is being quickened into wholesome activity. It has yet to 
show whether it can hold the heart and intellect of New Japan. 

Let us now turn to a survey of political history and see what has 
been the root and the offspring of the forty-years' movement. We 
shall inquire what is down at the bottom of the ceaseless unrest in 

* "The Outlook" {The Christian Union], April 1, 1893. 



JAPAN IN 1894. 623 

national politics, especially in the long conflict, not between the peo- 
ple and the Throne, but between the people and the Government. 

The meteoric phenomenon of the night of July 8, 1853,* prefigured 
in its brilliancy, direction of movement, and apparent end the uprising 
of the two (or three) great clans which, since 1868, under every form 
of government, have ruled the mikado's empire. "It made its appear- 
ance in the southward and westward, and illuminated the whole atmos- 
phere. ... It pursued a north-eastwardly course in a direct line for a 
long distance, when it fell gradually towards the sea and disappeared." 

So might a prophet have foretold the course of the coalition headed 
by the great Satsuma and Choshiu clans, which we have described in 
Book I., Chapter XXVIII. Fifteen years after the meteor seen from 
the Susquehanna 's deck, the " Sat-cho " captured Kioto and inaugurat- 
ed New Japan. Twenty-one years more had to pass before the prom- 
ise in the imperial oath to summon a parliament was fulfilled. To- 
day we write of the fifth session of the Imperial Diet — that august 
assembly representing the nobles, gentry, and people of the country 
ruled since 1868 by the Sat-cho. The story of the two elections and 
of the five sessions is that of a fierce and not wholly bloodless strug- 
gle between the Liberal parties and the Government, or, more exactly, 
of the people against the two mighty clans intrenched behind the 
throne. 

The net results of four sessions seem at first almost trivial, and the 
story is soon told. In the first session of 1890-91, the hostility of 
the Opposition was against the cabinet led by Count Masagata. A re- 
duction of the Budget to the extent of six and a half millions of yen 
was secured, and a collision on the very threshold of representative 
government was happily averted. The second session of 1891-92 
opened even less hopefully for the Government, and, after a severe 
struggle, ended in dissolution. The Kai-shin and Jiyu parties were so 
joined in implacable opposition that the cabinet ministers soon found 
that the situation was beyond their control ; and so invoking the Em- 
peror's executive interference, they appealed to the country through 
fresh elections. How far active government influence was brought to 
bear unfairly to secure a more tractable temper in the Diet cannot be 
stated, yet it is evident not only that the estrangement between the pop- 
ular and the official classes was increased, but that the Government was 
bitterly disappointed in results. The new Diet opened May 6th, 1892. 

* " Perry's Narrative." Appleton's N. Y. edition, p. 272. 



624 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

Although in this third session the Budget was not considered, yet the 
Government escaped a formal, by receiving indirect, but real, censure. 
A new and eclectic cabinet, not yet the creation of the Diet, but 
chosen by the Emperor and made up of "all the talents," was now 
formed. It was led by the veteran Ito, " father of the constitution," 
and author of the best written commentary upon it, while Inouye be- 
came minister of the Home Department. In the fourth session, the 
Jiyu-to, or Eadical party, whose favorite measure — the reduction of the 
land tax — had been accepted, manifested a desire to work with the cab- 
inet. For months, however, so great were the forces of opposition, 
that the problem was one of either dissolution or compromise. A re- 
duction in the Budget of nearly nine millions, or a grand total of less 
than eighty -four millions, was insisted upon. The Opposition ap- 
pealed to the Emperor, who answered in a state paper of notable abil- 
ity, in which party strife and politics were ignored, and the "fixed 
expenditures" reduced by three and a half millions, his Majesty 
ordering that one-tenth of his own income should be appropriated to 
secure the results desired. Peace came through the Throne, but the 
Kai-shin party is still implacable and continues agitation. 

The battle ostensibly rages round the Budget, but the real ques- 
tions at issue are these: Shall the government of the country be by 
party after the British model, or according to the Prussian method? 
Shall the Government be really responsible to the Diet, or nominally to 
the sovereign ? Shall the power be in the hands of an oligarchy con- 
sisting largely of two clans, or shall the clan spirit be banished, and 
sovereign and people rule? 

The roots of this difficulty go back to the days of the Taiko and 
Iyeyasu, to which rulers the great clans of Satsuma and Choshiu never 
gave more than nominal submission. Proudly and sullenly they main- 
tained their semi-independence, and waited over two centuries and a 
half for revenge. The coming of the alien in 1853 was the awaited 
signal to begin their work. While individuals were unselfishly conse- 
crated to patriotism, the clans masked self-interest under the plea of 
loyalty to the mikado, overthrowing in 1868 the shogunate. If in 
Kioto they devoured the prey, in Tokio they divided the spoil. No 
Benjamin or Saul in ancient Israel, no Fujiwara in mediaeval Nippon, 
no American politician, ever so held their grip on the treasury, or ex- 
celled the Sat-cho in distributing offices to clansmen. The inside view 
as eye-witness which the writer enjoyed in Tokio during three years, 
over two decades ago, showed him how grandly the Japanese ex- 



JAPAN IN 1894. 625 

ceeded the American spoilsmen in nepotism. In this year of Meiji 
the 27th, the lists of government officers and employes show that the 
men of only two clans, Satsuma and Choshiu, still fill a majority of the 
most desirable offices. In the many changes of ministries, it is " the 
mats and not the floor" that are rearranged. The Japanese political 
edifice for twenty-five years past has been an oligarchy cemented by 
clan spirit. This is the real meaning of the long struggle of the peo- 
ple against the Government, of the Lower House of the Diet against 
the Ministry. During the year 1893 the effort has been especially to 
reform the navy, which in personnel, declare the Kai-shin politicians, 
is virtually an organization of Satsuma men. Great as have been 
the services of the illustrious statesmen of the Meiji periods, it is evi- 
dently the deeply settled belief of the people that new times and prob- 
lems demand new men, and that clan spirit is now an anachronism not 
to be tolerated or excused. It is time for the meteor of July to fall 
into the sea, so that the new morning of true national life may dawn. 
The men of the Meiji era are now aging fast and passing away. 
Sanjo Saneyoshi, General Yamada, Yoshida Kiyonari, and Terashima 
Munenori have "changed their worlds" since our last chapter was 
written. Of some of those still in power and influence, like Ito and 
Inouye, it can be said that they have opposed the clan spirit, served 
country and sovereign with pre-eminent ability and faithfulness, and 
foreseen the needs of the nation. To such patriots, in and out of 
office, belongs much of the credit of Japan's notable progress in wealth, 
population, and prestige. For, despite all commotions, dangers, and 
calamities, the increase is notably great. Whereas in 1872 the 
population of the empire was but 33,110,000, the census of 1892 
shows a total of 41,089,940 souls. There has been hopeful increase 
also of food supply, savings, manufactures, mines, commerce and in- 
dustry of all sorts. The national wealth has doubled in ten years. 
Once Japan was reckoned by Europeans as " hardly worth trading 
with." In 1892, the total of exports (91,102,753 yen) and imports 
(71,326,079 yen) amounted to 162,428,832 yen, the increase in one 
decade being one hundred and fifty per cent. The United States, 
once having the least of the trade with Japan, now leads every other 
nation as a buyer and seller, her business aggregating in 1892 44,- 
663,024 yen. Five-eighths of Japanese trade is with English-speaking 
nations. It is from Anglo-Saxondom that the leaders of thought and 
action derive their chief inspiration. Resisting, for want of space, the 
temptation to prove and illustrate this assertion, and to show the in- 



626 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

fluence on religion, science, philosophy, and literature, as well as upon 
politics and national development, of the nations using English speech, 
we make passing reference to her representation at the World's Co- 
lumbian Exposition. 

It was wholly fitting that Xipangu, the country which the Genoese, 
in his Spanish caravels in 1492, was seeking, should join with the 
world in honoring his exploit. The first Asian nation to send ships to 
America across the Pacific — a sailer to Mexico in 1573, and a steamer 
to California in 1860 — was Japan. In the generosity of her financial 
appropriation, and the variety and interest of her contribution to the 
Chicago Exhibition, the mikado's empire was exceeded by only two 
other countries, while in the permanency and value of her gifts to Chi- 
cago she leads the world. Her total space occupied — falling far short 
of the desire of intending exhibitors — was about 150,000 square feet. 
Under the roofs of the halls of Manufactures and Liberal Arts, of Agri- 
culture, Fine Arts, Horticulture, Forestry, Mining, Fisheries, and in the 
street devoted to entertainments, in bazaar and tea-house, her portable 
products of native industry and genius were visible. Yet, strange as it 
seems, the only permanent edifices, except the Art Exhibition building, 
that remain in Jackson Park after the White City has vanished, are 
the specimens of Japanese historical architecture on Wooded Island. 
Of the three separate buildings united so as to form to the uncritical 
eye a single structure, called the Ho-den, or Phoenix Palace, the centre 
and right and left wings represent three epochs. On the right the Fu- 
jiwara style (a.d. 1000-1200), before the days of nails, metal hinges, 
sliding partitions, but of silken corded and tasselled curtains, such as 
Sei Shonagon could easily raise (p. 211), may be studied. On the 
left stands the house typical of the Ashikaga era (a.d. 1333-1 51 9), 
when matted floors, papered walls and partitions, elaborate metal-work, 
and other luxuries came into vogue. The main edifice, with its greater 
number of roof-timbers and detail of decoration, follows the fashion 
prevalent in Tokugawa times (1604-1868). In its general ground 
plan the edifice follows the lines of the Phoenix Temple built in Uji 
in the year 1050. 

While the United States has celebrated its first centennial of po- 
litical union, and the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 
America by Columbus, Tei Koku Nippon proposes in 1895 to com- 
memorate the millennial of Kioto. A thousand years ago, in the castle 
of Hei-an, the mikado fixed his residence, and around him, as the foun- 
tain of authority, grew up the Kio, or "Blossom Capital." 



JAPAN IN 1894. 62? 

The year 1894 opens in tumult and with portents that disturb the 
warmest friends of Japan, shaking their faith in the capacity of an 
Asiatic race for constitutional government or for participation in the 
comity of nations. The Diet opened November 25, 1893. The Bud- 
get, in six books, containing altogether 1438 pages, estimated the 
revenue at 90,675,196 yen and the expenditures at 85,472,159 yen. 
The House of Representatives, in a spasm of political animosity, first 
proceeded to expel its speaker, Mr. Hoshi Toru, without any known 
charge against him as a presiding officer, and then attacked the 
Budget, hoping to compel a resignation of the Cabinet ministers. On 
the 19th of December the Government suspended the sittings of the 
House for ten days, apparently in order to consult what should be 
done — whether the Diet should be dissolved, or the Ministry either 
resign or set about reconstruction. Meeting again on December 29th, 
the House was, after a turbulent session, suspended for another ten 
days. On the next day the Diet was dissolved. 

Thus far the people, as represented in the Diet, have steadily gained. 
The " military party " in the Government, that wants the reign of force 
continued, the Diet defied, and the Constitution rescinded, has been 
beaten. Men of moderate counsels have held control. With them a 
section of the Jiyu party, led by Count Itagaki, the unfaltering pa- 
triot and leader of a twenty years' campaign — peaceful campaign — is 
disposed to co-operate. They are willing still to wait and not precipi- 
tate a crisis. The Kai-shin party demands instant overthrow of clan 
government. The ten political coteries or groups in the House, dif- 
fering seriously on minor points, are united in opposition to the Gov- 
ernment, and in hearty hatred of that clan rule which, whatever be 
the political issue, seems doomed. 

Meanwhile, awaiting with intense interest the solution of the prob- 
lems of State and of Church, we note, in closing, the advent of the 
new book in New Japan and the literary movement so full of prom- 
ise.* Now that the old literature based on feudalism and Chinese 
ethics no longer feeds the mind, it is cheering to see that fresh pens 
respond to the needs of the new age. After Bakin and Ikku have 
come Yamada, Tsubouchi, and Kotaro Han, in fiction ; after Rai Sanyo 
appears Shimada Saburo in history ; after Motoori is Kume ; while in 
the other paths of thought and inquiry still walks many an earnest 



* "The New Book in New Japan," The Literary World, May 6, 1893. "The Literary- 
Movement in New Japan," The Outlook, January 27, 1S94. 



628 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

pilgrim. Besides embroidering the old annals with romance, there is 
a prodigious activity among native scholars, who now write their 
country's story on critical principles and in attractive literary form 
for the people. On the granite front of the Boston Public Library, 
in company with the hundreds of names of the literary torch-bearers 
of every age and country, stand those of Sugawara Michizane and 
Rai Sanyo. Recognizing the genius of the Japan that is past, 
Americans welcome gladly the dawn of a day so full of literary 
promise. Even in the morning of her life, Nippon was called Hi-no- 
moto (the day's beginning); to-day, in her larger and richer life, 
may Japan be the Land Where the Day Begins for all Asia. 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 629 



V. 

THE WAR WITH CHINA. 

To most of the people of the three countries — China, Corea, and 
Japan — as well as to the world at large, the war of 1894, between 
Dai Nippon, a unit, and some fractions of the Chinese Empire, came 
like a lightning-bolt out of blue sky. To the rulers of the Middle 
and Sunrise kingdoms it was not altogether unexpected, for the 
relations between the governments of the two empires had become 
strained over the debatable ground of Corea. In attempting to 
explain the origin of the war, and in recounting the military and 
diplomatic movements, we shall endeavor to be impartial. 

As we view the situation, China stood like a great giant, impos- 
ing to the world because of size, numbers, and claims rather 
than by inherent strength and simple truth. Trusting in antiquity, 
impervious to new ideas, contemptuous of every civilization except 
their own — never, indeed, dreaming that there was any other — the 
Chinese were in a chronic state of unreadiness. Japan, like an athlete, 
having all available powers in hand, was alert, vigilant, and pre- 
pared. Corea, like a pygmy, and without a government worthy of 
the name, stood between the jealous rivals soon to become hostile 
and combatant. 

Strictly speaking, the war was provoked by a very few manda- 
rins. The congeries of peoples called the Chinese Empire form in 
reality only a patriarchal state which has no real, but only a nom- 
inal, unity. There is no such thing as China considered as a polit- 
ical entity, but there are various provinces, each having its own 
local government. There are also powerful viceroys, and a great 
central figure-head of parental authority in Peking, under whom is 
a bureaucratic administration. One of these powerful viceroys, Li 
Hung Chang, with patriotic motives, and desirous of stirring up the 
authorities at Peking to arm and equip for modern defence, to open 
the mines of coal and iron, to lay the railroad from the heart of 
China to its farthest frontier, to forestall Russian aggression, pro- 
voked the war of 1894. He and those who thought with him ex- 



630 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

pected,with their superior ships to overpower the Japanese navy, 
and with his private, or at least provincial, army drilled by German 
officers, to beat back the troops of Japan from Corea. Thus would 
the two objects — of retaining Corea as a buffer state, and of excit- 
ing the Peking authorities sufficiently to secure appropriations — be 
secured. In Japan's intestine quarrels, the coveted opportunity 
seemed at hand. Deceived by surface indications, and not know- 
ing the temper of the Japanese, China forced the war. 

Those who during the past eight years have studied the behav- 
ior and aggressive advances of Yuan — China's, or, rather, Li Hung 
Chang's, envoy in Corea — know how well the servant obeyed his 
master, giving abundant excuse and justification to Japan, the 
United States, or some other power to interfere. The Japanese, 
having opened the once Hermit Nation to the diplomacy and com- 
merce of the world, having created her modern trade and incipient 
industries, having interests outweighing and outnumbering those of 
all other foreigners within her borders, resented the action of China 
in virtually outlawing the treaties which Corea had made, and in 
practically keeping her subject and vassal to the Middle Kingdom. 

On the other hand, Japan was internally nearing a political crisis 
in the virtual deadlock between the emperor's ministers and the 
lower and more important house of the Imperial Diet. It seemed 
as though something must be done to divert the attention of the 
people and of the too rapidly growing class of active politicians from 
intestine quarrels to some great national enterprise abroad. Fur- 
ther, the pressure of a population increasing at the rate of half a 
million a year has forced a colonizing nation like the Japanese to 
look longingly afield for expansion. A magnificent army and navy, 
superbly organized, drilled, officered, and ready for the severest trial 
of powers and patriotism, were awaiting only a signal. For twenty- 
five years the Japanese, oppressed by treaty, powerless under a 
diplomacy which they looked upon as galling and unjust, had ap- 
parently yielded only with and for the purpose of becoming victor 
in the end. Whether in time, had the provocation still remained, 
Japan would have outlawed the treaties made in her political child- 
hood cannot be certainly affirmed ; but of her desire to impress the 
world at large with her abilities as a military power, which her intel- 
ligent friends already knew she possessed, there can be no question. 

Nevertheless, patiently biding the favorable time, knowing that 
China considered her as a traitor to Asia and to Confucianism, 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 631 

Japan kept herself ready to draw instantly the sharp line whenever 
and wherever patience should cease to be a virtue. Caring not a jot 
for the size, the numbers, or the reputed colossal resources and en- 
during powers of her giant rival, the athlete watched and waited. 
Jack and the Ogre, or rather Momotaro and the Oni's Castle, was to 
the Japanese an unforgotten childhood's tale. 

In modern times, whatever forces have upheaved the Asiatic na- 
tions, stagnating in the dreaminess of Buddhism or the savagery of 
Confucian conceit, have been born of Christianity. In Corea the 
old elements and institutions of a society founded upon patriarchal 
and Confucian ideas had already been shaken. As far back as 
17V 7 the first wind-wafted seeds of the Roman form of the faith 
began to germinate in Corean soil. By the year 1859 the wide- 
spreading and deeply rooted tree was able to survive a prolonged 
storm of persecutions, the cruelty of which could be matched only 
in the annals of the Inquisition. The bigotry that banned and the 
tortures that followed were the direct result of a narrow Confucian- 
ism. A Corean scholar, Choi, impressed with the convictions, zeal, 
and consecration of the foreign priests and native Christians, withal 
astonished at their tremendous success, pondered deeply as to 
whether theirs might not be the true religion. While thinking long 
upon the subject, he became ill even to the point of death. In a 
trance he received a revelation from God, whom he himself named, 
after the Roman Catholic title, Lord of Heaven. Called, as he be- 
lieved, to found a new religion, Choi forthwith proceeded, from the 
elements of the three systems of Confucius, Buddha, and Lao Tsze, 
to compose a sacred book, and to write the prayer which his follow- 
ers still daily repeat. Thus began a great movement which, origi- 
nating in religion, ended in politics, in time degenerating into law- 
lessness. It caused a great uprising of the most oppressed people 
on the face of the earth, which the feeble government at Seoul 
could not suppress. It inflamed Japan and China in war. Only by 
that new force in modern history, the Japanese soldier, was the 
revolt quelled. 

The name of this new sect or party is Tong Hak, or Eastern 
Culture. Its Great Sacred Scripture, penned by Choi, combines 
what he deemed best in the three religions already known to Chinese 
Asia. In its literary features this cultus bears likeness at many 
points to the Shin Gaku, or Heart-Learning movement, which, in 
Japan in the first half of the nineteenth century, was started to 



632 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

cleanse the abysses of Japanese immorality and irreligion. Eclecti- 
cism in doctrine, earnestness of conviction, intensity of purpose, 
and practicality in benevolence marked both movements. The 
Tong Haks took from the Chinese classics the idea of the five 
relations governing human duty, from the sutras and shastras the 
law of purity of life, and from the Tao the rules for cleansing 
the body from lust and filth. One term for the so-called Tong Hak 
Bible combines the names of the three old religions, while in the 
title used for the Deity in the daily prayer we see the debt to 
Roman Christianity. The founder intended his scripture and work 
to be set over against So Hak, or Western Culture. In Japan the 
coming of Perry and the foreigners from* Christendom paled the 
Shin Gaku as the sun drowns the taper's beams in daylight. To 
the hermits of Corea no such morning dawned. 

Within six years persecution broke out, and the founder, Choi, 
was charged with being " a foreign-Corean " and " follower of the 
Lord of Heaven" — that is, a Roman Catholic Christian. After trial 
and torture he was beheaded, and his doctrines outlawed. Never- 
theless, the new religion grew through a whole human generation, 
winning many followers. At a time of oppression and rapacity, 
extraordinary even in Corea, it was not astonishing that poor 
peasants should be goaded to rebellion. Nerved by their new zeal, 
they struck even against authority, though abominably misused, for 
enough freedom to make life tolerable. Early in 1893 fifty fol- 
lowers of the Tong Hak creed entered the Corean capital. On a 
table before the palace gate they spread a red cloth, and laid 
thereon a petition, praying that their martyred founder might 
be declared innocent, receive posthumous rank, be allowed a 
monument in his honor, that the ban on their religion be re- 
moved, and that they be put on a political equality with the 
Roman Catholics. The alternative, if their petition were rejected, 
was expressed in a threat to expel all foreigners from the country. 
The king refused their prayer. They were driven away, and some of 
their local leaders arrested. 

No sooner had the snow of the next winter vanished than a wide- 
spread uprising in the southern provinces of Corea took place. 
The military sent from Seoul in April melted before the Tong 
Haks like frost in the sun. The civil magistrates were driven from 
their offices, swift vengeance in many cases following their horri- 
ble cruelties in the past. Instead of a few hundred zealots there 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 633 

were myriads of people in wild insurrection, bent only on destroying 
their oppressors. The May danger seemed to threaten the whole 
kingdom. The June moment was critical. 

In Seoul the pro-Chinese faction at court, then vastly out- 
numbering their moderately pro-Japanese rivals, sent to Peking 
for a Chinese force to put down the Tong Hak rebels. Accord- 
ing to the Chino-Japanese treaty of 1885 negotiated by Li and 
Ito, neither power was to send armed men into Corea without first 
notifying the other. In violation of this convention, the Chinese sol- 
diers were first sent, and then the Government at Tokio was notified. 
On June 7th China sent a despatch which compromised not only 
Japan, but all the treaty powers which had acknowledged the 
sovereignty of Corea, by declaring her a subject country. "It is 
in harmony with our constant practice," declared this document, 
"to protect our tributary stated by sending our troops to assist 
them. . . . General Yeh has been ordered to proceed at once to 
Zenra ... in order to restore the peace of our tributary state." 
Thus China, against the world, reasserted her ancient claim of 
suzerain over Corea as a vassal state, and flung down the gauntlet 
to Japan, virtually bidding her to maintain her rights if she could. 
Treaties being usually held as sacred, the smaller country gained, 
even as the larger forfeited, the sympathies of the civilized world. 

The Tong Hak match had fallen between two petroleum tanks 
that were already leaking. The whole Japanese people, through an 
extraordinary incident, which we shall recount, were at this mo- 
ment on the point of combustion and explosion. The Chinese 
despatch fired both rulers and people of Japan to national con- 
flagration. 

Nine years before, the attempt of the Corean Liberals return- 
ing from America, Europe, and Japan, to effect a revolution in the 
Government in favor of modern civilization had failed. One of 
them, Kim Ok Kiun, fleeing to Japan, received the same protection 
which, under the treaties, would have been granted to any for- 
eigner. During his long residence he made himself extraordinarily 
popular, contriving, also, to elude his assassins. At last, in April, 
1894, when lured to Shanghai by a false telegram and a forged 
bank draft, he was promptly murdered by a Corean emissary. 
With indecent haste, and with a barbarism that reveals the Chinese 
official character, the body of the murdered man was packed on 
board of a man-of-war to be delivered up to his real destroyers 



634 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

in Seoul, for public mincing, distribution, and exposure. The car- 
rion was duly displayed at the capital and in the provinces, while 
the assassin gained gold and won official honor. 

The news of this union of Chinese and Corean barbarism pro- 
duced an extraordinary excitement in Japan. To Government and 
people it seemed as if China and her pupils in Corea had, with 
unnecessary ostentation, flouted and insulted the newly adopted 
civilization of Japan. It is not strange that the emperor and his 
ministers decided that, with China's forcible reiteration of her 
claim upon Corea, following a fresh outbreak of barbarism, and 
backed as it was by military force, the line of forbearance had 
been reached. The time for the wager of battle between two in- 
compatible civilizations had come. 

Down at the bottom this Chino- Japanese war meant, in its 
provocation and origin, the right of a nation to change its civil- 
ization. It is difficult for people in the Occident to understand 
the depth of pedantic polemic that underlies the estrangement 
between New Japan and unawakened China. For years the idea 
in Peking had been that Japan was not only a " neighbor-disturb- 
ing nation," but had been colossally wicked in discarding the 
Chinese calendar, and in turning away from Confucius and the 
civilization of the sages to adopt and assimilate that of Christen- 
dom. What the Chinese residents of Yokohama did in 1872 — 
tumultuously engaging in public protest against that change of 
chronology, which in far-eastern Asia means also change in mental 
attitude, with repudiation of every suggestion of intellectual or 
political vassalage — the Chinese Government has been doing tacitly 
ever since. When, in 1879, Japan and China were on the verge 
of war over the question of the ownership of the Eiu Kiu islands, 
the two governments, at the suggestion of General U. S. Grant, 
agreed to settle the matter by reference to a joint High Com- 
mission. Prince Kung, with colleagues, and Mr. Shishido were ap- 
pointed as plenipotentiaries, and the conference began at Peking 
August 15th, 1880. On the 21st of October, by Chinese official 
notice, the Articles of Agreement were ready for signature. The 
commissioners indulged in mutual congratulations, and agreed to 
sign the instruments ten days later, when lo ! on the 17th of 
November, sixteen days after the date fixed, the Emperor of China 
turned the whole affair into a burlesque. In a word, his majesty 
virtually cancelled the commission of the plenipotentiaries, trans- 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 635 

ferring their function in a modified and incomplete form to " the 
Northern and Southern Superintendents of Trade." The profes- 
sion which the Chinese Government made in conferring full 
powers upon any one but the emperor was an empty farce. 

After such an experience, the Japanese statesmen were not likely 
to be lured into another similar humiliation. Furthermore, since 
in the unhappy Corean affair of 1885, in which the Japanese Lega- 
tion guard of ninescore men had been attacked by fifteen hun- 
dred Chinese troops — one-half of the three thousand which had 
been encamped near Seoul — the mikado's ministers were fore- 
warned by experience not again to be caught napping. Hence, on 
the 12th of June, 1894, Japan, asserting her treaty rights, replied 
to China, announcing the despatch of a body of troops under strict- 
est discipline to Corea. 

The next step, five days later, was highly creditable to the gov- 
ernment which had made the first treaty with Corea. It was an 
invitation from Japan to China to undertake jointly some needed 
reforms, financial and administrative, in the peninsular state, in 
order to preserve the peace of the East. This offer was curtly 
refused, China demanding the immediate withdrawal of the Jap- 
anese troops. Japan's reply was that, pending an amicable settle- 
ment of the questions in dispute, any further despatch of Chi- 
nese troops into Corea would mean war. China, having already 
chartered the Kow-Shing, a British transport, filled it with soldiers 
and despatched it to A-San, a well-fortified camp in a peninsula 
formed by two rivers flowing into Prince Jerome Gulf, some forty 
miles southwest of Seoul. At the same time the Tartar forces in 
Manchuria began the march overland to Corea. 

All this, through their spies, regular servants, and the telegraph, 
the Tokio Government knew well. Resolving once for all to settle 
the long string of questions inherited from the past; to break the 
power of Chinese insolence, and if possible shatter the old Chinese 
world of ideas, with its perpetual menace of implied or explicit 
claim of supremacy ; to compel the elimination of Corea as a factor 
of disturbance in the affairs of the Far East ; to assert her imper- 
illed rights and dignity ; to make proof of her duty and power to 
graduate from foreign tutelage and dependence ; to reveal to her 
own people their power in union, and to impress the world with her 
ability to hold and maintain her place as equal among the great 
nations of the world, Japan called forth her military strength. 



(336 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

With a secrecy, order, precision, celerity, and punctuality incredi- 
ble, except to those who, as helpers and friends, had lived inside 
the country, away from the seaports, Japan landed first a brigade 
and then an army corps at Chemulpo. Her engineers completed, in 
twenty minutes, a pontoon - bridge over the Han River. Within 
twelve days after orders received in camp in Japan a military cor- 
don had been drawn around Seoul, in Corea. On the 23d of July, 
after a skirmish in front of the palace between the military escort 
of the Japanese minister, Mr. Hoshi Toru, and some pro-Chinese 
native troops, the question of Corea's independence and willingness 
to stand by her treaty was answered by the king in the affirmative. 

On the water the Chinese were the first aggressors, the Chen- 
yuen firing on the Naniwa. The Chinese troops on the transport 
Kow-Shing, not knowing or unwilling to believe that the Japanese 
had adopted civilized rules of warfare, refused to surrender. After 
keeping his signals flying four hours, and these armed men refusing 
to surrender, the captain of the Naniwa quickly sank the transport. 
This was on July 25th. Four days later General Oshima's mixed 
brigade moved out from Seoul, and after a battle at Song-kwan, in 
which the brave Major Matsusaki lost his life, A-San was occupied 
July 30th, and the Chinese driven back from their stronghold. The 
declaration of war came from the Japanese emperor on August 1st, 
in a document strikingly clear in phrase and temperate in tone. 

The reinforcements despatched by way of Gensan, as well as 
Chemulpo, formed with the pioneer regiments the First Army. As 
" geography is half of war," it was matter of foreordination and 
necessity that the decisive battle should in a.d. 1894 be fought 
just where the decisive battles in Corean annals always had been 
fought — at Ping Yang. Here, three centuries before, Konishi had 
lost a battle and retreated southward before an overwhelming Ming 
and Tartar host. Now the pendulum of history, despite forty days 1 
time for defence and fortification by the Chinese, was to swing to 
reverse effect. 

The Chinese declaration of war — a new thing in the history of 
the Middle Kingdom, showing strikingly the progress of interna- 
tional law — was also dated August 1st, and was characteristic of 
mandarins who were not yet willing either to learn or to forget. 
From beginning to end the writing displayed utter ignorance of 
the enemy to be fought and the work to be done. It was declared 
that the Wo-jen, or pygmies (Japanese), had, " without any cause 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 637 

whatever," invaded " our small tributary ;" that Japan had " vio- 
lated the treaties," and was "running rampant with her false and 
treacherous actions," while " we [China] have always followed the 
paths of philanthropy and perfect justice." The Chinese braves 
were called upon to " hasten with all speed to root the Wo-jen out 
of their lairs." A comparatively small number of really disciplined 
soldiers, armed and drilled in the European manner, was, with the 
usual mob of native military, hurried forward to Ping Yang, which, 
aided by the fugitives from A-San, they began to fortify. 

China actually went to war without a hospital corps, or any or- 
ganization of surgeons, nurses, or accommodations for the wounded 
or sick worthy of the name. Except detachments from Li Hung 
Chang's private army, very few of the Chinese officers or men had 
been educated in modern tactics. In their equipment all sorts of 
prehistoric accoutrements — flags, banners, umbrellas, and fans — 
were mingled with modern imported weapons, in a medley which re- 
sembled the diplomacy of Peking. On the other hand, besides a 
thoroughly well-officered, armed, drilled, equipped, and provisioned 
army of fifty thousand young men, the flower of the Japanese na- 
tion, the Tokio Government was able to call out for service a reserve 
of one hundred thousand strong and healthy patriots, burning with 
enthusiasm and familiar with the weapons, machinery, and practice 
of modern war. Furthermore, besides her numerous public and pri- 
vate hospitals, her splendid medical field-corps, her four hundred 
surgeons and pharmacists, and her fourteen hundred trained nurses, 
she had an efficient Red Cross society. Immediately both the nation 
and the government began the organization and consolidation of all 
public and private resources in order to strike as a unit. At home 
and abroad all sons and daughters of Nippon vied in diligence and 
sacrifice for the efficient carrying on of the war, and for securing 
the comfort of the soldiers at the front. 

The secrets of Japanese success are patent to the student. In 
such a time as this, life for the average man in Nippon is worth 
living. With a flaming patriotism that surprises Europeans who 
have imagined the Japanese to be only average Asiatics and mere 
imitators, all classes, sexes, and ages rallied intelligently to the sup- 
port of the national cause. A quarter of a century ago Japan was 
the hot-bed of caste, monopoly, and privilege. These seemed to 
crush out every germ of popular liberty and ambition. Even the 
proverbial politeness and submissiveness of the Japanese common 

41 



638 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

people is in large part the result of ages of military despotism. 
To-day, with the soil virtually in the hands of the people who cul- 
tivate it ; the courts open to all who seek even-handed justice ; 
schools and education free to every one; military privilege no 
longer the prerogative of a special class ; the existence of pariahs 
no more than a memory ; government becoming more national and 
representative ; democracy making strides every day, with little or 
nothing to hinder the advance of the individual in every line of 
human achievement, it is not strange to see a whole nation rising 
up in an outburst of intensest energy. Self-sacrifice, loyalty, and 
patriotism, with an unquenchable ambition to humble China, to 
impress the whole world, and to make their country great, char- 
acterize the Japanese of a.d. 1895. In this war they have irrev- 
ocably committed themselves to cosmopolitan as against Chinese 
or merely ethuic principles. 

The sympathies of those who began, even twenty-five years ago, 
to help in making the New Japan have been from the first with 
the smaller country. Their seat of observation has not been the 
fence, in order to be sure, before applauding, which side would 
win. Seeing so clearly that the Japanese were triply armed in hav- 
ing their quarrel just, and knowing their earnestness, their former 
teachers and helpers not only, but Americans in general, have not 
been surprised at the swift success of the armies under the sun- 
banner. They have not wondered at the tenacity and staying 
power of the soldier-lads, or at the sustained ability and serious- 
ness of statesmen and generals, and their power of mastering the 
secrets and applying the forces of Western civilization. In the 
campaign of 1894 the Japanese were no longer pupils. They 
went to war not only without foreign aids or advisers, but in 
clothes, arms, and ships made in large part by themselves. 

Almost simultaneously the supremacy of Japan on both sea and 
land was demonstrated. The future historian will mark two days 
of September as the dates of battles that decided the future of 
Eastern Asia. On the 15th, at Ping Yang, General Nodzu, attacking 
in front, on the flanks, and in the rear, broke up the Chinese army. 
Within a fortnight every Chinese soldier had been driven out of 
Corea. Near the mouth of the Yalu River, on the 17th, the first 
great conflict between fleets of steel - armored ships took place. 
The cruisers of Japan, unevenly matched against the Chinese battle- 
ships and men-of-war from noon to sunset, so decided the issue 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 639 

that the dragon-flag was not again mirrored on the deep in pres- 
ence of the sun-banner. Then followed the brilliant Manchurian 
campaign, in which the First Army won an almost unbroken series 
of victories, holding, in April, 1895, Chinese territory vastly greater 
in area than the Japanese Empire. Neither snow and ice nor 
exposure and hardship seem in any way to cool the ardor of the 
young Japanese conscripts. 

The Second Army, under Field-Marshal Oyama, was despatched 
to Port Arthur. This vast fortress had, after twenty years of toil, 
been fortified at a cost of two hundred millions of dollars. After 
bombardment by the fleet on the sea -front, and attack by the 
land forces in the rear, beginning before the dawn on the 21st of 
November, the town, forts, and ships were captured within ten 
hours. The glory of the victors was dimmed by an outbreak of 
cruelty, the reports of which, however, were highly exaggerated in 
the newspapers of America and Europe. 

The Third Army was despatched to Wei-Hai-Wei, to reduce the 
fortress guarding the southern entrance to the Gulf of Pechili. 
After brilliant naval and land operations, this stronghold passed 
under the Japanese flag January 31st, 1895. The remaining ships 
of the Chinese northern fleet were captured, sunk, or destroyed. 
With both sea-gates defending the capital broken down, the Japan- 
ese fleet soon appeared before the Taku forts. Another expedition, 
despatched to Formosa, captured the fortifications in the Pesca- 
dores Islands, bombarded Tai-wan, and made a landing upon the 
main island. 

From the first outbreak of the war, but especially after her mul- 
tiplying reverses, China attempted, as suppliant, to secure sym- 
pathy, practical mediation, and direct help from the governments 
of Europe. This policy showed a vast change from that of ancient 
days, and a reverse of attitude that seems astounding. The inher- 
ent weakness of the geographical colossus was exposed. In area 
and population immense, a venerable patriarchal system but scarcely 
a political entity, the sham collapsed, and the truth about China is 
now known to the world. Neither mere bulk nor blind numbers, 
however great, are anything, and with her rhinoceros-crust of con- 
ceit pierced by the Murata rifle, it is to be hoped that China will be 
the gainer because of her bitter experience. Slow, however, in 
learning their lesson, the Peking mandarins tried to gain time and 
secure a favorable place in the line of indirection. In November, 



640 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE. 

1894, she sent a foreigner, Mr. G. Dietring, her faithful servant in 
the customs service, as peace envoy to Japan. As a matter of de- 
cency and of course the mikado's ministers did not receive him. 
Then, through offers of mediation from the Government of the 
United States, the Peking Government pretended to send two 
plenipotentiaries, Messrs. Chang and Shao, who, despite lofty titles, 
were in reality only very limited subordinates. They arrived at 
Hiroshima January 31st, 1895. Their credentials when examined 
showed that they had. no powers to settle terms of peace. After 
her experience of China's behavior in the diplomacy of the Riu 
Kiu affair in 1879, Japan resolved not again to be duped. The 
two Chinese envoys with their suite of twenty-four other persons, 
including one honored American statesman and adviser, were po- 
litely sent home to their master. Throughout, Japan acted upon 
the principle expressed by Premier Ito, " The usages peculiar to 
China must give way to and be ruled by the canons of Inter- 
national Law." 

In their third attempt to gain time, advantage, and peace the 
Tsung Li Yamen acted with honesty. The emperor, recalling from 
disgrace, real or nominal, Li Hung Chang, despatched him with 
full powers to Japan. At the historic city of Shimonoseki the 
peace conference was opened March 21st. The first request of Li 
was for an armistice, which at first was refused. On Sunday, the 24th 
of March, a fanatical soski, attempting to assassinate the venerable 
Chinaman, fired a pistol, the bullet of which lodged in the cheek of 
the envoy. Thus again the old murderous spirit which has so re- 
peatedly stained Japan's record — the same spirit in which the 
ruffian ronins used to cut down unsuspecting foreigners from be- 
hind, which has again and again butchered ministers of the Govern- 
ment, which has disgraced the nation in the eyes of the world by 
the insult and attempted murder even of the nation's guests, which 
has made a river of blood flow through her history, which is the 
exponent of one of her greatest dangers, and which may yet 
deluge her soil with an inundation of sanguinary anarchy — broke 
forth. 

May 8th, the date appointed to exchange ratifications of the Shi- 
monoseki treaty at Chifu, China, was an auspicious one. On that day 
in 1853 Perry's squadron lay at first morning anchor off Yokohama. 
On May 8, 1858, Townsend Harris and the shogun's commissioners 
completed in Yedo the negotiations that opened Japan to light, 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 641 

science, and the gospel, introducing missionaries, teachers, physi- 
cians, and merchants, and making possible to Japan her new career. 
On this same day in 1895, in the era of Meiji, or enlightened appro- 
priation of Western ideas, Japan obtained from China, as the results 
of her forty years' training and eight months' war : 

The independence of Corea ; 

Permanent cession of Formosa ; 

Opening of China to manufactures and commerce ; 

Cash indemnity to cover cost of the war. 

The question of the release of Manchurian territory occupied by 
Japanese troops was settled in such a way as to gain the good-will 
of Europe and avert war with Russia while satisfying China. 

Formosa, first discovered and occupied by Japanese in the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth centuries, is geologically and ethnically a 
part of Dai Nippon. Under Japanese rule, and probably within a 
generation, its interior will cease to be a lair of savages and its 
coasts a haunt of pirates, the whole island being opened to the 
world's commerce. Within four days of the signed treaty, the 
mikado appointed the military and civil administrators of Formosa. 
The island chain of Tei Koku Nippon now extends through nearly 
thirty degrees of latitude. Fronting Asia and its conquered na- 
tions, independent Japan now calls a halt to European aggression. 
Amid Spanish, British, French, Russian, and Chinese neighbors, 
she means to hold her own. Can she do it ? 

Aside from the extraordinary manifestations of popular joy called 
forth on account of the " silver wedding " of their imperial majes- 
ties the emperor and empress, the year 1894 will stand in history 
as that in which Japan received justice at the hands of Western 
powers. All the treaties allowing foreign trade and residence, 
except the one negotiated with Mexico in 1890, have been either 
based on, or debased from, that instrument made by Townsend 
Harris in 1858, who expected revision to take place in 1872. He, 
mourning over conditions then necessary and at first beneficial, but 
which when perpetuated became wrongs, but hoping to see justice 
done, died without the sight.* After twenty-two years of agita- 
tion and the wreck of three cabinets, Great Britain, in a new treaty 



* See the biography and journal of his residence in Japan (1856-1862) in the 
book " Townsend Harris, First American Envoy in Japan," by William Elliot 
Griffis: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1895. 



642 THE IflKADO'S EMPIRE. 

signed August 26th by Lord Kimberly and Viscount Mutsu, virt- 
ually recognized Japan as an equal. The new American treaty 
received the signatures of Secretary Gresham and Minister Kurino 
November 22d, and was ratified by the United States Senate Decem- 
ber 28th. 

Whatever be the issues of the Chino-Japanese war of 1894-'95, 
probably the most significant in its influences of the Asiatic wars 
of many centuries, it is evident that after peace Japan's real diffi- 
culties begin and her greatest problems come up for solution. 
The conflict between clan government and the whole nation, and 
between the Ministry and the Diet is yet to be fought out. Further- 
more, the trend towards democracy is unmistakable, and the perils 
of militarism are real. The impending revolution in industry is likely 
not only to modify, even to destruction, much of her beautiful land- 
scape, but threatens to annihilate many things that are lovely and 
charming in the life of her people. The building of the factory, 
the introduction of machinery, and the rearrangement of industrial 
forces and combinations will sow seed for fresh crops of difficulty 
which only great wisdom and vast increase of moral power can 
overcome. 

Yet, despite all the omens of evil and prognostications of gloom, 
there have been many signs made visible, even during the present 
war, of the increasingly serious purpose of the Japanese to per- 
severe in their career of progress, and to seek to base this prog- 
ress on education. Already earnest natives are raising warnings 
against the dangers which are sure to flow from excessive milita- 
rism and the intoxication of conceit. That great purifying and 
uplifting force, a belief in God, one and personal, is the expulsive 
power before which the fog and dreams of Buddhism and the ag- 
nosticism and paralysis of Confucianism are surely passing away. 
Japan has the great task before her of educating her masses and 
elevating her women. One thing seems certain, and that is that 
Christianity has taken root in the minds and hearts of the people. 
Japan will never be " converted " in the way that many old-fash- 
ioned folk hoped a generation or even a decade ago ; but in the 
adoption and assimilation of the true spirit and real teachings of 
Jesus the Japanese are making steady advance. Despite so-called 
"reactions" and the tendency to "Japanize Christianity/' we dis- 
cern no real retrogression in the steady movement towards a Japan 
that knows but one Deity. 



THE WAR WITH CHINA. 643 

In ages that are past there could be and was a variety of civili- 
zations, narrow, ethnic, defective. Now there can be but one civil- 
ization — that founded by Jesus. He fused the many ideals and 
inheritances into one. To his vision no one nation has yet fully 
attained or can attain. When all the families of the earth bend 
the knee unto the Father whom the Christ revealed, his ideas may 
be fulfilled in human history. Japan's best hope is that already 
some of her sons dwell in this open vision. 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 



ASSOCIATED IDEAS IN AET AND POETRY. 

There are certain pairs of objects which form the main stock of the Japanese 
artist's designs. With many variations and combinations, they appear over and 
over again in pictures, on vases, lacquer-ware, trays, dishes, embroidery, bronze, 
and, other articles of use and virtu, and objects of art, and form the set of sym- 
bols oftenest employed by the poet. The pine-tree and stork, emblems of longev- 
ity, are embroidered on robes, presented to newly born infants. The willow and 
swallow, and bamboo and sparrow, indicative of gentleness, are seen oftenest on 
screens, fans, and upright objects of household adornment. The young moon 
and cuckoo, the bird flying across the crescent, is a poetic reference to Yorimasa, 
a renowned archer, who shot a hideous beast, having the head of a monkey, body 
and claws of a tiger, and the tail of a dragon. This monster, who came at night 
to disturb the rest of the mikado Narihito, 1153, was hit in the eye by Yorimasa's 
arrow, three feet long, and finally dispatched by his trusty sword. The mikado 
rewarded him with a famous sword, Shishi no o (king of wild boars), by the hands 
of a kuge who, when about to present it, heard a cuckoo, and, catching the bird's 
note, extemporized seventeen syllables, or the first strophe of the thirty-one syl- 
lable distich (honka). Yorimasa being as good a poet as he was a brave soldier, 
immediately replied with the second strophe of fourteen syllables. The "open 
secret" of the poem is thus roughly given in English: 

LITERAL. OOCCXT. 

Kuge The cuckoo Like the cuckoo, 

Above the clouds So high to soar, 

How does it mount (like the archer to houor) How is it so ? 

Yorimasa. .The waning moon (bent bow) Only my bow I bent, 

Sets not at will (a sped shaft) That only sent the shaft. 

The neatness of the allusion, the skill of the improvisatore, and the liquid ca- 
dences (utterly lost in translation) make the poem a joy forever to the ear of the 
native, as the silver bow and the " Japanese nightingale " are things of beauty to 
his eye. 

The phoenix bird (hovjo) and the Paulownia imperialis tree are often together 
as twin imperial emblems on the mikado's robes, rugs, curtains, and painted or 



64 6 NOTES AND APPENDICES. 

gilded on screens and hanging scrolls. This tree, so common in Japan, is an 
emblem of rectitude. Its leaves form the imperial mon, or crest. 

The peony and Chinese lion — a beast which never trod this earth, but which 
may be seen rampant on temple screens, yashiki doors, panels — form a couplet, 
with which lovers of the huge and monstrous may regale their vision. Another 
pair of these Siamese twins of Japanese art are the sleeping wild boar and a clus- 
ter of hagi (Lespedeza). The mulberry and the goat are put together by the art- 
ist, since this animal has the appetite of a silk-worm, and feeds voraciously on 
mulberry leaves or the paper which is made from its bark. 

The hare peeps out of the rushes on many a lacquered box or tray, or is 
wrought in gold -threaded embroidery. Instead of seeing a man in the moon 
carrying a bundle of sticks, Japanese fancy beholds this leaping rodent scouring 
the face of the silver luminary, with equisetum, or scouring rush. This is a favor- 
ite subject on the lacquered bodies of jin-riki-sha. 

The red maple leaves and the stag are painted with fine effect on screens. 
"In autumn the maples crimson, and the stag calls the doe." The Japanese 
word iro means both color and love; and in this stanza, as in a thousand others, 
the play is on that word. For a lover to send his once loved a .sprig of autumn 
maple is equivalent to giving the "mitten." The leaf and the heart have both 
changed their iro (color). 

The cherry-blossom and pheasant are fitly wedded together in poetry and art. 
The most beautiful bird (kiji) is this many-tinted iridescent queen of the groves 
in the Sun-land, and the bloom of the sakura-tree (Pi*unus pseudo-cerasus), which 
is cultivated solely for its blossoms, is the national flower of the Land of Great 
Place. " There are snow-showers which do not descend from the skies," and the 
falling bloom - flakes spread many a white carpet on the stone paths leading to 
the temples. It is often as large as a rose, and as beautiful. The -plum tree, 
also admired for its blossoms, is joined with the uguisu (nightingale). The plum 
is, by excellence, the poet's tree, and the nightingale is the poet of birds, loving 
song more than they all. "Send forth your fragrance upon the eastern winds, 
O flowers of the plum-tree! and do not forget the spring, because of the absence 
of the sun," cries a native poet. Not unfrequently does one see the plum-tree 
stand all leafless in the snow, but adorned with white blossoms, like a bride be- 
fore the altar. It bursts into clouds of fragrance and beauty in February, the 
leaves appearing later. 

It is said that geese in flying on long journeys carry rushes in their bills, and 
drop them before alighting on the water, and then alight upon them. The rushes 
and geese are figured together. A comical couplet is the baboon and the moon's 
reflection in the water. The long-armed, stump-tailed fool sees the image of the 
moon in the water, and in vain attempts to grasp it. 

The couplet of the chrysanthemum and fox refers to one of the hundreds of 
the current fox myths and stories. A fox, assuming the form of a lovely woman, 
bewitched a certain prince. One day, happening to fall asleep on a bed of chrys- 
anthemums, she resumed her normal shape. The prince seeing the animal, shot 
at him, hitting the fox in the forehead. He afterward saw that his concubine had a 
wound in the corresponding part of the head, and thus discovered her true nature. 

The bamboo and tiger are often seen together on large objects of use or orna- 
ment : the tigers, being afraid of elephants, hide in the bamboo jungle. The peach- 
trees and oxen, a less common design, had reference to a line in a Chinese poem. 
An emblem of success in life is that of the dragon crossing the summit of Fuji on 
the clouds. As the small snake becomes a dragon, so does a man of low estate 
often rise by triumph over obstacles to exaltation and honor. 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 647 

For a number of the facts here given I am indebted to Captain E. Pfoundes, 
whose "Budget" of Japanese notes, entitled Fu So Mirni Bukuro (Tnibner & 
Co., London), is a valuable thesaurus of condensed information. 



THE TESTAMENT OF IYJSYASU. 

"The Legacy of Iyeyasii" is a document whose authenticity is yet to be 
proved. It purports to be the testament of the founder of the last shogunate ; 
but a thoroughly critical examination of its claims has not, I believe, been made. 
It is certain that it was not popularly or generally known in Japan, nor ever 
reckoned as within the body of standard legal literature. It was translated into 
English (thirty - seven pages print) by Mr. J. F. Lowder, some years before its 
publication by him in Yokohama, in 1874. The title of the pamphlet read thus : 
"The Legacy of lyeyas (deified as Gongen-sama) : a Posthumous Manuscript, in 
One Hundred Chapters, translated from three collated Copies of the Original," 
printed at The Japan Herald office. 

Dr. Walter Dixon, also, in his work on Japan, gives (chapter vii.) another ver- 
sion, with notes and comments. W. E. Grigsby, Professor of Law in the Impe- 
rial College in Tokio, in a paper read before the Asiatic Society of Japan, has 
given a scholarly analysis of the document, showing especially its similarity to 
most ancient law codes, such as those of Solon and Lycurgus, the Twelve Tables, 
the Mosaic, and the early Teutonic codes. He terms it " the most original mon- 
ument which Japan has produced in the way of legislation," with which compare 
Dixon, pp. 269, 270. Whether authentic or not, it embodies the policy of Iye- 
yasii, is a mirror of feudalism, and is of great historic value. 

The work consists of one hundred sections, in no logical sequence, and difficult 
to determine in the original. Of these, sixteen consist of moral maxims and re- 
flections, which are quotations, or intended to be such, from Confucius and Men- 
cius ; fifty-five are connected with politics and administrations ; twenty-two re- 
fer to legal matters ; and in seven lyeyasu relates episodes in his own personal 
history. No sharp distinction is made in it between law and morality, between 
the duties of the citizen and the virtue of the man. The man who obeys the law 
is virtuous ; he who disobeys it is vicious and low. It is the province of the leg- 
islator to inculcate virtue. All that we understand by law — all that embraces the 
main bulk of modern law, the law of contracts, of personal property, of will, com- 
mercial and maritime law— finds no place in this code. This arose from the fact 
that human life within the daimioate was regulated by custom, not by agreement ; 
and there was hardly any intercourse between the various daimioates, because the 
only property of any importance was land, and no will was allowed. On the oth- 
er hand, great stress was laid on criminal law, the law relating to landed proper- 
ty, the law relating to the status of persons and classes, to etiquette and ceremo- 
nial, to tables of rank and precedence, and to political administration and gov- 
ernment. On these points, especially the latter, minute details are entered into 
with a peculiarity which is striking, when compared with the poverty of the code 
in respect to those matters which seem to us most important in a system of law. 
Another of the many points of similarity to ancient codes of law, notably the Mo- 
saic, is the elaborate provisions with respect to the avenging of blood and person- 
al satisfaction for injuries done. The individual does not, as in more advanced 
societies, give up his right of private vengeance. Great stress is laid on caste dis- 



t548 NOTES AND APPENDICES. 

tinctions, which are made more sharp and distinct by reducing them to writing, 
and thus perpetuating the unequal stages into which early society is divided. 

Professor Grigsby further remarks that there is one great difference between 
this and all other early codes, viz., its secrecy. It was in express terms forbidden 
to be promulgated. The perusal of it was only allowed to the chief councilors 
of state (rojiu). How can people obey laws if they do not know their nature ? 
A parallel is found in the history of the Aryan race. In Greece and Rome, at the 
beginning of their history, the knowledge of the laws and their administration 
was confined to the aristocratic class, and the first struggle of the commons was 
to force this knowledge from them— a struggle which ended in these codes being 
reduced to writing and promulgated. The parallel is not complete in respect to 
writing. In the case of Greece and Rome, the laws were unknown because not 
written : in Japan, though written, they were yet to be unknown. In early com- 
munities, custom has absolute sway. The magistrates, as Iyeyasu says, are the 
reflectors of the mode of government ; they interpret, not make, the law. Any 
additions to the old customs were to reach the multitudes by "filtering down 
through the magistrates, who alone would be conscious that they were new. To 
the multitude they would only be slight modifications of the customs they had 
always observed. As a code of laws, this was the character of the testament of 
Iyeyasu, who claims merely to be a transmitter, not a framer, of the law. His 
work is a compilation, not a creation ; a selection from old, not a series of new, 
laws. 

The "Legacy" is invaluable in representing to us the condition of society in 
feudal Japan. The basis of Japanese life, the unit of civilization, is the family, 
which is a corporation, the most characteristic mark of which was its perpetuity. 
The head of the family held a power similar, in nearly all respects, to that of the 
paterfamilias at Rome, having complete power over the persons and property of 
his children, and doing as he pleased with both, fettered only by that custom 
which is the great hinderance to despotism in all early communities. But his 
liabilities were equally great with his rights. He was responsible for all the ill- 
doings of any of his family. A Japanese family was not, however, what we un- 
derstand by the word. It was often not natural, but artificial. Persons whom 
we should exclude from the family were admitted into it, and those who with us 
are constant members were sometimes excluded from it. Adoption (yoshi ni 
nam) on the one hand, and emancipation, or the sending-away (kando sum) of a 
son from the family, on the other, were in constant practice. In Rome, adoption 
was employed merely to enlarge the family ; in Japan, solely to perpetuate it. 
The son adopted by a man having no male heir filled exactly the place of a natu- 
ral child ; and, in early times at least, he must take the name of the adopting par- 
ent. If the adopting parent had a daughter, the adopted son married her, becom- 
ing heir himself, in which respect the Japanese custom differed from the Roman, 
which held that the natural tie of brother and sister was formed by adoption, and 
hence their marriage was illegal. Only an adult could adopt ; but if the head of 
the family were an infant, he could adopt. This practice was often resorted to in 
Japan for two reasons— the religious and the feudal; to prevent the extinguish- 
ment of the ancestral sacrifices, with the consequent disgrace to the family ; and 
because the land, being held only on condition of military service, if a vassal died 
leaving no male children, the lands escheated to the lord. The second method 
which rendered the family artificial were the expulsion and disinheritance of a 
son from the family, which, however, were only effected when he was of an irre- 
deemably bad character. 

Marriage in Japan, which was allowed — rather, enjoined — in the case of a man 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 649 

sit sixteen, of a woman at thirteen, was not a contract between the parties or a re- 
ligious institution, hut a handing-over of the bride to the family of her husband 
by her own family, she passing completely under the control of her husband, 
both as to person and property, subject to reference to a council of family rela- 
tions. 

So far the internal aspect of the family. Each family, however, was connected 
with other families, as in early Greece and Rome; and thus about fifty great 
clans were formed, of which the four principal were the Minamoto, Fujiwara, 
Taira, and Sugawara, all the families of which were, or claimed to be, descended 
from a common ancestor. Certain sacrifices were peculiar to each, and certain 
dignities confined to certain families. Thus the office of kuambaku was monopo- 
lized by the Fujiwara, and the shogunate by the Minamoto clans (the families in 
succession being, the line of Yoritomo, the Ashikaga, and the Tokugawa). This 
condition of society was analogous to that in Italy and Greece from 1000 B.C. to 
500 a.d. But what is peculiar to Japan is that, with this primitive form of so- 
ciety remaining unchanged, we find a system that did not arise in Europe till 
about the eleventh century a.d. Thus the superstructure of feudalism was rear- 
ed on the basis of the family— an incongruous social edifice, as it seems to our 
minds. 

In Japan, then, at the time of the formation of the code, the mikado and the 
imperial court were above, and not included in, the theory of feudalism, at the 
head of which was the shogun, and beneath him the daimios, each with a terri- 
tory of greater or lesser extent, which he farmed out to the samurai, or vassals, in 
return for military service. In the greater daimioates these vassals underlet their 
lands on the same conditions; in oiher words, subfeudation was common. A 
vassal not able, by reason of age or sickness, to perform this service abdicated in 
favor of his son. If a man died without leaving any children, natural or adopted, 
his property was retained for him by a legal fiction, for his death was concealed 
till permission was given by his lord for him to adopt a son, and only after such 
permission was given was his death announced. The necessity of having an heir, 
that the vassal's land might not escheat to the lord, but be kept in the vassal's 
family, greatly extended the practice of adoption. If the vassal proved faithless 
to his lord, both escheat and forfeiture were incurred. 

The leading principles of Iyeyasu' s policy are thus summarized: The position 
of the shogun to the mikado was to be one of reverential homage. The shoguns 
were in no way to interfere with the mikado's theoretical supremacy, but to 
strengthen it in every way, and show all respect to the emperor's relatives, and 
the old court aristocracy. Secondly, toward their inferiors the shoguns were to 
behave with courtesy and consideration. All insult and tyranny were to be 
avoided, and the weight of power was not to press too harshly. The neglect of 
this principle, as shown in insolence to inferiors, was the rock on which the gov- 
ernments in nearly all ancient communities struck. This caution proves the con- 
summate knowledge of human nature and the profound mastery of state-craft 
possessed by Iyeyasu. Another recommendation of Iyeyasu was, that the govern- 
ment of the lesser daimios should be frequently changed. The motive alleged 
for this was the prevention of misgovernment ; but the real reason was, that they 
might not acquire local influence, and so endanger the power of the shoguns. 
This was similar in its purpose to the policy adopted by William the Conqueror, 
in portioning out the territories of his barons among several counties. In En- 
gland the plan was completely successful ; in Japan it failed, as we have seen, 
because the shoguns never dared to enforce the measure in the case of the greater 
daimios, who were the only ones to be dreaded. 



650 NOTES AND APPENDICES. 



NOTATION OF TIME. 

The first systematic attempt at marking and recording time was in a.d. 602, 
when a Buddhist missionary from Corea, named Kuanroku, brought to Japan a 
Chinese almanac, and taught its use. From this time, the years, lunar months, 
and days are counted, and the years named after the characters in a cycle of sixty 
years, which is made up of one series of ten, and another series of twelve, charac- 
ters. The cycle of ten series is called from "the five elements," Wood, Fire, 
Earth, Metal, and Water, each of which is taken double, or masculine and femi- 
nine. 

The cycle of twelve series is formed, according to the division of the zodiac, 
into twelve equal parts, to each of which the name of some Japanese animal is 
assigned. These are the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Serpent, Horse, Goat, 
Ape, Cock, Dog, Hog. 

By making a square, in which twelve lines are drawn horizontally, and ten per- 
pendicularly, we have one hundred and twenty squares, of which sixty are used. 
Place the ten-series at the top, and the twelve-series on the left side, and the 
numerals from 1 to 60 in diagonal lines in the spaces from left to right, and from 
top to bottom. Thus the cyclical name of the year 1711 (see page 288) is 
" water" - " dragon," or the ten-series name, "water," and the twelve - series 
name, " dragon." The first year of the current cycle is 1864, and the cyclical 
name of 1877 is " fire "-" bull," the first belonging to the ten-series, and the sec- 
ond to the twelve-series cycle. (See diagram in Hoffman's " Grammar," page 
156.) This method of reckoning time is still in use among the Chinese, Coreans, 
and the Japanese Buddhist world and priesthood. All Japanese literature is full 
of it, and it will be printed in the native almanacs for some years to come. 

ENUMERATION OF THE YEARS BY YEAR-PERIODS. 

From 645 a.d., under the mikado Kotoku, the system of reckoning the years 
by chronological periods called nen-go, or year-names, has been in use. In his- 
torical works, and in Japanese literature generally, these year-periods are always 
referred to, and formerly many natives committed the entire list to memory. 
Others used little reference-tables, kept in their pocket books or near at hand. 
No special rule or system was observed in changing the names, though the acces- 
sion of a new sovereign, the advent of war or peace, a great national calamity or 
blessing, a profound social change or great national event, was made the pretext 
for adopting a new name. It thus results that from 645 to 1868 a.d. there have 
been 249 year-names, including those used by the " northern dynasty " during 
the period 1336-1392, treated of in Chapter XIX. The year-names are appointed 
by the mikado, and are chosen from sixty-eight Chinese words or characters spe- 
cially reserved for that purpose. They are often very poetic and striking. (See 
in Dr. J. J. Hoffman's " Grammar," page 157.) In the following list, it will be 
noticed that the same syllables recur often. The dates can not exactly correspond 
to our years, since the Japanese New-Year's-day was often as much as six weeks 
later than January 1st. A few years ago— 1872— the Government fixed upon the 
year 660 B.C. as that in which Jimmu Tenno " ascended the throne," and Christ- 
mas, December 25th, as the day. Hence, in the newspapers, official documents, 
and books printed since 1872, the time is expressed in " years of the Japanese 
empire," or "from the foundation of the empire," or "from the accession of 
Jimmu Tenno." These phrases have a value at par with the Roman " Ab urbe 
condita," the date of Jimmu's "ascension" being purely arbitrary. 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 



651 



A.D. 

Taikua 645 

Hakuchi 650 

Sujaka 672 

Hakuho 673 

Shucho...., 686 

Taikua 695 

Taicho 697 

Taiho 701 

Keiun 704 

Wado 708 

Hoki 715 

Yoro 717 

Jinki 724 

Tempio 729 

Tempio Shoho ......... 749 

Tempio Hoji 757 

Tempio Jingo 765 

Jingo Keinn 767 

Hoki 770 

Teno 781 

Enreki 782 

Daido S06 

Konin 810 

Tencho 824 

Jowa 834 

Kasho 848 

Ninjiu 851 

Saiko 854 

Tenan 857 

Jokuan 859 

Genkei 877 

Ninna S85 

Kuampei 8S9 

Shotai 898 

Engi 901 

Encbo 923 

Shohei 931 

Tengio 938 

Tenreki 947 

Tentoku. 957 

Owa 961 

Koho 964 

Anwa 968 

Tenroku 970 

Tenyen 973 

Jogen , 976 

Tengen 978 

Eikuan 983 

Kuanwa 985 

Eiyen 987 

Eiso 989 

Shoreki 990 

Chotoku 995 

Choho 999 

Kuanko 1004 

Chowa 1012 

Kuannin 1017 

Chian 1021 

Manjiu 1024 

Chogen 1028 

Choreki 1037 

Chokiu 1040 

Kuautoku 1044 

Ejo 1046 

Tenki 1053 

Kohei 1058 

Chireki 1065 

Enkiu 1069 

Joho 1074 

Joreki 1077 

Eiho 1081 



LIST OF YEAR-PERIODS. 

A.D. 

Otoku 1084 

Kuanji 10S7 

Kaho 1094 

Eicho 1096 

Shotoku 1097 

Kowa 1099 

Choji 1104 

Kajo 1106 

Tennin 1108 

Tenyei 1110 

Eikiu 1113 

Genvei 1118 

Hoan 1120 

Tenji 1124 

Daiji 1126 

Tensho 1131 

Chosho 1132 

Hoyen 1135 

Eiji 1141 

Koji 1142 

Tenyo 1144 

Kiuan 1145 

Nimpei 1151 

Kinjiu 1154 

Hogen 1156 

Heiji 1159 

Eireki.. 1160 

Oyei 1161 

Chokuan 1163 

Eiman 1165 

Ninan 1166 

Kawo 1169 

Shoan 1171 

Angen 1175 

Jijo 1177 

Yowa 1181 

Juyei 1182 

Monji 1185 

Kenkiu 1190 

Shoji 1199 

Kennin 1201 

Genkiu 1204 

Kenvei 1206 

Shogen 1207 

Kenreki 1111 

Kempo 1213 

Jokiu 1219 

Jowo 1222 

Gennin 1224 

Karoku 1225 

Antei 1227 

Kuanki 1229 

Joyei 1232 

Tembuku 1233 

Bunreki 1234 

Katei 1235 

Rekinin 123S 

En wo 1239 

Ninji 1240 

Kuangen 1243 

Hoji 1247 

Kencho 1249 

Kogen 1256 

Shoka 1257 

Shogen 1259 

Bunwo 1260 

Kocho 1261 

Bunyei 1264 

Kenji 1275 

Koan 1278 

Showo 1288 



A.D. 

Eiuin 1293 

Shoan 1299 

Kengen 1302 

Kaseu 1303 

Tokuji 1306 

Enkei 1308 

Ocho 1311 

Showa 1312 

Bumpo 1317 

Genwo 1319 

Genko 1321 

Shochiu 1324 

Kareki 1326 

Contoku 1329 

Genko 1331 

Kemmu 1334 

SOUTHEBN DYNASTY. 

Engen 1336 

Kokoku 1340 

Shohei 1346 

Kentoku 1370 

Bunchiu 1372 

Tenjiu 1375 

Kowa 1381 

Genchiu 1384 

NOBTHEBN DYNASTY. 

Rekiwo 1338 

Koyei 1342 

Teiwa 1345 

Kuan wo 1350 

Bunwa 1352 

Embun 1356 

Owa 1361 

Toji 1362 

Oan 1368 

Eiwa...: 1375 

Koreki 1379 

Eitoku 1381 

Shitoku 1384 

Kakei 1387 

Kowo 1389 

Meitoku 1390 

Oyen 1394 

Seicho 1428 

Eikio 1429 

Kakitsu 1441 

Bunan 1444 

Hotoku 1449 

Kiotoku 1452 

Kosho 1455 

Choroku 1457 

Kuansho 1460 

Bunsho 1466 

Onin 146T 

Bummei 1469 

Chokio 1487 

Entoku 1489 

Meiwo 1492 

Bunki 1501 

Eisei 1504 

Taiyei 1521 

Kioroku 1528 

Tembun 1532 

Koji 1555 

Eiroku 1558 

Genki 1570 

Tensho 1573 



652 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 



A.D. 

Banroku 1592 

Keicho 1596 

Genwa 1615 

Kuanyei 1624 

Shoho 1644 

Keian 1648 

Showo 1652 

Meireki 1655 

Manji 1658 

Kuarabun 1661 

Empo 1673 

Teu wa 1681 

Jokio 1684 



A.D. 

Genroku 168S 

Hoyei 1704 

Sbotoku 1711 

Hokio 1716 

Gembun 1736 

Kuampo 1741 

Enkio 1744 

Knanyen 1748 

Horeki 1751 

Meiwa 1764 

Anyei 1772 

Temmei 1781 

Kuansei 1789 



„. A.D. 

Kiowa isoi 

Bunkua 1804 

Bunsei 1818 

Tempo 1S30 

Kokua 1844 

Kayei 1848 

Ansei 1854 

Manyen i860 

Bunkiu 1S61 

Genji 1S64 

Keiwo 1865 

Meiji 1S68 

Meiji (28tbyear) la^u 



FOREIGN TRADE OF JAPAK 



Year. Imports. 


Exports. 


Total. 


1868 

1869 


$10,693,072 

20,783,633 

33,741,637 

23,461,814 

23,964,679 

32,835,795 

31,128,125 

28,431.939 

29,327,498 

44,276,327 

yen 65,455,234 

" 81,728,581 

" 89,355,338 


$15,553,473 

12,908,978 

14,543,013 

19,317,306 

27,711,528 

28,175,770 

31,058,888 

36.268,020 

37,146,691 

52,407,681 

yen 65,705,510 

" 56,603,506 

" 90,419,909 


$26,266,545 

33,692,611 

48,284,650 

42,779,120 

51,676,206 

61,128,773 

62,250,134 

64,712,861 

66,503,659 

96,711,933 

yen 131,160,744 

" 138,332,087 

" 179,775,247 


1870 

1874 

1876 

1879 

1881 

1883 

1885 

1887 

1888 


1890 

1893 



LEGENDARY ART AT THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION. 

On the rotunda of Main Hall, south side, were painted representative Asiatic 
scenes, objects, and persons. Verging on the centre of the group was a Japanese 
"poem-card," inscribed in hiragana, with the following stanza from a very an- 
cient poet, by one of the Japanese commissioners : 

"Waga knni no Yamato* sbima ne ni idzurn hi wa, Morokosbit hito mo, awoga zara- 
meya ;" 

or, in English, 

"In the ancient Yamato island, my natrve land, the sun rises: must not even the West- 
ern foreigner reverence ?" 

or, 

" When the foreigner comes to my country, the olaeu isle or Japan, must he not re- 
spect it ?" 

Of the two platforms in the Japanese section, one was devoted to porcelain of 



* Yamato is the ancient name of Japan. 

t Morokoshi is an archaic geographical term applied to China, India, or the Western 
world generally. The penman evidently meant, "Even when Christendom's sight-seers 
at the Centennial Exposition come into the Japanese section, will they -not— nay, must 
they not— admire our art and country?". 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 653 

Arita and Karatsu, in Hizen ; the other, to the bronzes of Etchiu, Kaga, and 
Kioto, and the cloisonnee enamel of Owari. Between these two platforms, in 
the aisle, were gold inlaid bronzes in glass cases. On the eastern side of the sec- 
tion were : 1. Tokio porcelain and Satsuma faience (white, cream, buff, and dead 
gold surfaces) ; 2. Kutani (Kaga) porcelain (red and bright gold) ; 3. Seto (Owari) 
porcelain (blue, white, and liver-colored). In the centre of the section were the 
gold lacquered work, Kioto porcelain and faience, screens, wood and ivory carv- 
ings, weapons, armor, and ancient copper bronzes and jewels. It was in these 
articles chiefly that legendary art found its best illustration. Most of the myth- 
ical, legendary, poetical, and historical incidents noted in previous pages of this 
work were portrayed, some of them many times over. The same ideas or sym- 
bols were repeated, with slight variations, in bronze, porcelain, lacquer, ivory, 
wood, silk, or in plastic forms. I have space to notice but a very few of the 
subjects most frequently treated. 

1. The Sea -god rising out of the Deep. — Riu Jin (Dragon -god), or Kai Riu O 
(Dragon-king of the Sea), page 498, is the personification of the dragon ; and the 
monarch of the world under the sea appears in many fairy tales and very ancient 
legends, his palaces being located under the ocean, the Inland Sea, or Lake Biwa. 
He is a reality still to millions of Japanese people. He is represented in terrible 
majesty, and of awful mien, rising out of the deep. His helmet and mail is a 
living dragon— the symbol of irresistible might, motion, and ubiquity. His robes 
are gold and jewels. Around him the waves mount, part, roll, and churn into 
white foam-edges, their translucent green curves flecked with silvery foam-bells. 
He holds in his hands a casket, in which are the jewels that control the ebb and 
flow of the tides (the powers of the sun and moon[r]), significant of victory, lon- 
gevity, valor, and invulnerability to Ojin (page 79), the infant god of war, whom 
he offers to endow with them. "Quick; take this casket: the opportunity is 
brief. I deign not long to remain in this upper world," is the expression on 
his face. In pictures, Takenouchi is holding the infant god when the Dragon- 
king appears. In several bronzes and ivory carvings his queen (page 498) is 
represented in robes of shell and coral, with diadem of rare shells. 

2. Endo, the Penitent tender the Water-fall. — On three of the largest and finest 
bronzes was portrayed this story of mad love, murder, remorse, and penance. 
Endo, one of the captains of the Kioto garrison during the Taira rule, a brave 
and gallant soldier, contracted an unlawful affection for the young and beautiful 
wife of a fellow-officer. The lady, made aware of his passion, steadily rejected 
his advances, when the foiled lover threatened to kill her aged mother if she did 
not yield to his wishes and consent to the death of her husband, or even if she 
informed on him. In the agony of conflict between wifely and filial love, she 
finally resolved on a plan whereby she should vindicate her own and her hus- 
band's honor, and save her mother's life. This was nothing less than to make 
herself the victim. Pretending to yield to Endo's suit, she fixed a certain night 
when she would have him secretly admitted into her sleeping-chamber. On that 
night she persuaded her husband to be absent; and dressiug her hair after the 
male fashion, she donned her husband's dress, and lay down in his place. The 
assassin entered through the door left open, slid aside the partitions, and in the 
dimly lighted chamber saw, as he supposed, the unconscious form of his victim. 
With one blow he severed the head, but, on holding up the bleeding trophy, saw 
that it was a woman's, and the object of his passion. In horror and remorse, he 
rushed to the temple, confessed his sin, shaved his hair, and, though in the midst 
of winter, went out and stood during twenty-one days under the icy flood. After 
due suffering by remorse and emaciation, the messengers of the scod Fudo appear 

42 



654 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 



in the cloud, or in the foliage above the crags, and declare his penance complete, 
and grant him pardon. He became a learned and holy monk, and built the great 
temple of Todaiji at Nara, in Yamato, which Toritomo endowed, and visited in 
1195. His priestly name is Mongaku Shonin (His Exalted Reverence Mongaku). 
In the bronzes, the shorn monk, his body bound with straw rope, and bared to 
the waist, with rosary in hand, stands under the icy waters, while snow burdens 
the dense foliage, and caps the gloomy crags. Remorse, torture, and fear are de- 
picted in his face ; while peering through the boughs is Fudo's gentle messenger 
bearing the flowery wand of peace and pardon ; while below, with his frightful 
scowl relaxed, and his iron-spiked club at rest, the demon avenger proclaims that 
justice is satisfied, and henceforth the sufferer is to be the holy~bonze. 

3. Fish leaping the Water-fall. — Once, when Kiyomori was on his way to view 
Kumano water -fall (near Kioto), in his state barge, surrounded by his cham- 
berlain, nobles, and sword-bearer, a white koi (carp) leaped up out of the river 
upon the deck of the boat. All rejoiced at this auspicious omen. 

The koi leaping the water-fall is a symbol of aspiration and ambition, and an 
augury of renown. The origin of the symbol is Chinese. In an old book it is 
said that " the sturgeon of the Yellow River make an ascent of the stream in the 
third moon of each year, when those which succeed in passing above the rapids 
of the Lung Men become transformed into [white] dragons." 

4. Takamochi (page 109), the founder of the Taira family, one night accompa- 
nied the mikado on a visit to one of his concubines, who lived at a distance from 
the palace. As the imperial night-walker was passing what is now Gihon Street, 
in Kioto, he met what appeared, in the gloomy darkness and drizzling rain, to be 
a demon with horns, and rays of fire streaming from its head. The emperor was 
greatly frightened, but Takamochi boldly seized and threw down the apparition. 
It proved to be an old priest, going out to light the shrine. He had on a grass 
rain coat, and a straw cone-shaped hat over his head, under which he carried a 
lamp, holding his pitcher of oil in his hand. Both parties apologized, and a 
famous subject for artists was the result. 

5. " The Water -fall of Yoro" is an ancient story. An aged wood -cutter, no 
longer able to work, was supported by his dutiful son, who daily set out with axe 
and cord to cut fagots. These he sold to buy rice and sake, the latter being a 
necessity to the old man. Finally, times were so hard in winter, and the snow so 
deep, that the son could not earn enough to buy even a gourdful. One day, while 
filially grieving over this, as he passed a water-fall near Takada in Mino, with his 
empty gourd in hand, he looked up, when some of the spray touched his tongue, 
and he beheld the water-fall turned to sake. His filial piety was rewarded. Joy- 
fully filling his vessel, he returned home, and thenceforward kept the old man's 
veins warm, and supported him in comfort. Hearing of this wonderful reward 
of filial piety, the emperor and his train went out to see it ; and in honor of the 
event the year-name (page 613) was changed to Yoro (nourishing old age). 

6. No is a kind of pantomimic opera, or "lyrical drama," in which the chief 
actor performs a variety of dances, while a band of musicians, usually behind a 
looped curtain, plays, and a precentor recites the words and leads the chorus, 
both of which contain much ancient poetry. The No depicts, by word and dance, 
the ancient mythology and legendary and historic lore. The dancers wear mag- 
nificent brocade dreses with long trails, suits of feathers, burnished armor, huge 
red wigs, and a variety of masks, which represent mirth, sorrow, wrath, serene old 
age, wicked old age, blooming youth, beauty, deformity, benevolence, malignity, 
and the various passions. In February, 1872, in Tokio, I witnessed a No perform- 
ance by four dancers, twenty musicians, and a singer. All of these belonged to 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 655 

the mikado's palace bard, and wore their ancient gorgeous robes of crimson and 
gold brocade. The four sets of No, which were first composed in the sixth cent- 
ury, were: 1. "Great Peace," intended to propitiate the gods. 2. "The Joy-at- 
tracting Dance," representing the dance of Suzume and. the mirth of the gods 
before the cave in which the sun -goddess hid herself. These were by four 
masked performers. 3. "The Dance of the Dragon-god" was by one person in 
dragon mask and helmet, and robes of resplendent brocade, representing Kiu 
Jin. 4. "The Mountain -god's Dance" was by a very handsome Japanese, in 
silver baldric and flowing opaline silk dress. In one of the cases at the Centen- 
nial Exposition, a collection of the No masks in miniature were shown. Most of 
those in actual use in Japan are many centuries old. The No dances and the sub- 
jects illustrated in them are repeatedly depicted on Japanese art-products. 

7. The Cock on the Drum is often chosen by the artist in cloisonnee, lacquer, 
porcelain, and bronze. It refers to the ancient custom in China of stationing a 
drum on a stand in front of the magistrate's office. Any one oppressed or mal- 
treated could come, and, by beating the drum, call attention to his plaint, and 
receive redress. In time of peace and good government, the drum was neglected 
and never sounded; hence the fowls would mount it fearlessly, and the rooster 
would use it as a favorite crowing-place. The hen would lead her brood around 
it. In one of Hokusai's sketches, a vine and leaves have entwined it, and doves 
are cooing and making love on it. Hence, an emblem of peace. 

8. On many of the bronzes one or two horsemen are depicted riding through 
the waves. In the campaign against the Taira, Toritomo gave to Takatsuna his 
fleetest and best charger from the stables of Kamakura, the same for which 
Kagesuye, his rival, had vainly asked. At the battle of Fujikawa, the Taira be- 
ing on the west and the Genji on the east bank, Yoshitsune ordered the bridge 
to be cleared of the planks, and the soldiers to unclasp their armor, and swim 
over. Two horsemen whipped up their horses, and plunged into the stream. The 
foremost was Kagesuye, the last was Takatsuna. Takatsuna, from behind, "lied 
to Kagesuye," and cried out, "Tour horse's girth is loose." Kagesuye stopped 
his steed, and tightened the strap ; upon which Takatsuna rode up, passed him, 
landed first, and shouted out his own name in defiance at the enemy and for 
cheer to his friends. In the report of the distinguished sent to Kamakura, Taka- 
tsuna was mentioned first, and Kagesuye second. Both heroes rode through a 
shower of arrows, and their fame is as immortal as Japanese art can make it. 

At the battle of Ujikawa, near Kioto, Sasaki, a noted Genji knight, plunged into 
the river, and in the face of a hail of arrows rode to the opposite shore. He is 
usually represented brandishing his sword, the arrows being cut in two by his 
strokes. He may be easily recognized by his crest of four hollow squares, ar- 
ranged so as to form a lozenge, with a space between each square. 

Another famous equestrian feat is that of Yoshitsune whipping his horse into 
a headlong gallop down the precipitous sides of the hills facing Ichinotani, in 
which the Taira were besieged (page 145, note). He was told that only deer and 
the wild boar could descend the path. Yoshitsune thereupon clapped his stir- 
rups against his horse's flanks, gave loose rein, dashed down, and the cavalry 
after him, and reached the lower ground in safety. 

When Hideyoshi marched to defeat Akechi Mitsuhide (page 238), the brother 
of the latter, named Samanosuke, could not in honor fight against his brother, 
nor could he disobey his lord, Hideyoshi. Coming to the shore of Lake Biwa, he 
galloped into the water, rode across the arm of the lake, slew his family, set his 
house on fire, and then performed hara-kiri, to save his name and honor, as one 
who could fight neither against lord nor brother, yet was not afraid of death. 



656 NOTES AND APPENDICES. 

TEA CROP. 

The total export of tea amounted to 22,582,152 pounds, of which 16,546,289 
pounds were shipped from Yokohama, 4,292,159 pounds from Kobe, and 643,159 
pounds from Nagasaki. All Japanese tea is green, and the United States is the 
chief customer for this tea. About 400,000 pounds were sent to England from 
Nagasaki in 1875. Some consignments are also made to China for conversion 
into black tea. The tea is picked in the spring and fall. About nine per cent, 
weight is lost by refiring or redrying for export. The best tea-producing prov- 
inces are Ise, Suruga, Inaba, and Tamashiro, which produce for foreign export 
28,000, 26,000, 23,500, and 22,000 pounds respectively. Kiushiu sent 22,000 ; Yaina- 
to, Kawachi, Iga, and Kii sent 12,000 ; Omi, 9000 ; Mino, 9000 ; Shimosa and Kad- 
zusa, 6000; Tamba, 5000; Echizen and Echigo, 3500; and sundry small districts, 
5000 pounds for export in 1875. The area of plantations and crop of tea is in- 
creasing steadily every year. Value of the export in 1894, yen 7,000,000. 



THE CERAMIC ART OF JAPAN. 

The first historic notice of the ceramic art in Japan is that of the terra-cotta 
figures set in the earth in a circle round the dead, in place of the living victims 
formerly buried up to their necks. After death by starvation, a circle of skulls 
marked the site of the illustrious dead, like the cairns of Britain. Ancient graves 
occasionally opened in the vicinity of Nara and Kioto are found surrounded by 
a circle of clay images. At the death of the wife of one of the ancient mikados, 
who had been grieved at hearing the groans of the dying victims buried alive to 
their necks with the dead Prince Yamato hiko no mikoto, he permitted his ad- 
viser to bring a hundred workmen in clay from Idzumo, who made clay images of 
men, horses, and other things, which were buried in lieu of men with the empress. 
Potters, brick and tile makers, came over from Corea with other artificers (p. 83) 
in the seventh century ; and in a.d. 724 progress in the ceramic art began by the 
introduction of the potter's wheel, and continued for five centuries in the work- 
ing of faience only, pure Japanese porcelain being unknown till the time of 
Hideyoshi. In the days of the Hojo, Kato Shirozaemon having visited China to 
study the art, came back and erected his wheels and kilns in S6"to, Owari, making, 
however, only pottery of an improved sort. "Seto-mono" (Seto ware, or seto, 
like our term " china") is the common name for household crockery in Japan. 
The making of real porcelain in Japan was begun by the Corean potters brought 
into Japan by the Japanese who invaded Corea (1592-1597). These captives were 
settled in Buzen, Higo, Hizen, Ozumi, and Satsuma, in Kiushiu, where are still 
the oldest seats of the ceramic industries, and at Yamaguchi, in Nagato, and near 
Kioto. About the same time a Japanese from Ise, who had studied the clays, 
pigments, and methods of the Chinese, settled in Hizen, where he found beds of 
clay with the varied qualities necessary to produce the famous Hizen wares. It 
is only in very recent times that the potteries of Owari, Mino, and Kaga have 
become celebrated ; and those near Tokio and Yokohama only within the last 
decade. At present it is notorious that the "old" Satsuma, Hizen, and Kioto 
wares are imitated in scores of kilns all over the country. Very few pieces of the 
highest artistic merit have been produced since the Restoration, as the making 
of porcelain and faience in Japan has since 1868 degenerated from an art to a 
trade. In the days of feudalism, masterpieces of the ceramic art were made for 
princes and lords, for presentation to fellow-daimios, the shogun and court no- 
bles. Such things were not bought and sold. There were, properly speaking, 
no shops for their sale. Only household crockery was seen in the shops. Fine 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 557 

pieces were not in the trade : a fact which explains what foreigners have so often 
wondered at ; namely, that until eight or ten years ago the rarest porcelain was 
made in Japan, and occasionally found its way to Europe, yet the keenest-eyed 
visitor in Japan never saw it on sale. Formerly the artisan was an artist, and 
worked for low wages and honor. He lived on a few bronze cash per day, yet 
enjoyed the presence and friendship of his lord. The daimio visited the potter 
at his wheel, and the potter sat in honor before his master on the mats of his 
palace — a place in which the richest trader in the province could not so much as 
enter. To imprint his stamp, or to scratch with his little finger-nail his name or 
mark on the bottom of a tea-bowl, or " clove-boiler," or vase, over which he had 
spent a year or three years, and which should adorn for generations the tokonoma, 
or nooks of a daimio's chamber, was sufficient reward to the workman already 
proudly happy in his own work. Of this contented happiness in work which 
found its reward in honor, not gain, I was more than once a witness. It is to 
be hoped that the efforts of the government and native art -lovers, and the 
proper foreign influence, will be able to arrest the downward tendency of Jap- 
anese art in ceramics, and restore it to its former glory, even though the social 
atmosphere and environment are now so wholly changed. 

The villages in which faience and porcelain are made, whose names are house- 
hold words in America and Europe, look like any other Japanese villages. In 
the dingy, weather-beaten cottages, made of wood, mud, reed, and thatch, the pot- 
ters work before their paper windows, the force in each "establishment" usually 
consisting of father and son, rarely of more than three or four men. The kiln or 
kilns are the common property of a village, built up the sides of a hill, and fired 
with pine wood, the workmen taking turns in noting the temperature and watch- 
ing the melting of sample enamels on bits of clay set near the plug-hole. 

Often the biscuit is made in one place, and the glazing done at another. Many 
potters now sell their baked wares to artists in Tokio and the large cities, who lay 
on the colors, decorate, and tire in their own furnaces — a process I have often 
watched in Tokio. New designs are wrought by the artist from a drawing, but 
stock subjects (p. 581) are laid on from memory, and for the cheaper wares 
dabbed on. In the potteries the principle of division of labor is well understood, 
one man making bodies, another spouts, another handles or ears, his specialty. 
Of late years companies employing capital have centralized labor, and collected 
workmen in large establishments, improving their fortunes, and, in rare cases, 
the art. 

Japanese porcelain or faience takes its name from the name of the trading 
town, the place of manufacture, the port whence it is shipped, the name of the 
province, or the place where it is decorated. The following wares are the most 
celebrated : 

Satsuma.— The oldest specimens have no colored decoration, and date from 
about 1624, those of the latter part of the century being but slightly adorned in 
colors. From the beginning of the eighteenth century, appear figures, landscapes, 
and the general style of decoration in gold and bright tints called nishiki (flow- 
ered silk, or brocade). The rich gilding, the harmony of colors, and the delicacy 
of drawing, have united to give "old Satsuma" ware, which is mostly in small 
pieces, its renown. Most of it is crackle, called hibiki (snake porcelain), the 
cracks imitating a serpent's skin. The body of nearly all fine Satsuma ware ia 
white, or cream, or buff color, though red, green, chocolate, purple, blue, white, 
and black glazes, made of native minerals and metallic oxides, are used. All 
sorts, qualities, and colors are now made and exported from Satsuma. Nearly 
all Satsuma ware is faience, semi-porcelain, or stone-ware — not true porcelain. 



658 NOTES AND APPENDICES. 

Hizen. — Arita and Karatsu are the chief places of manufacture in this province, 
Arita alone having over two hundred kilns. The wares made for home use are 
called Sometsuki (dyed in patterns, or figured), which has blue paintings under 
the glaze. The whole design is traced by the artist in black lines, the shades be- 
ing indicated merely by a stroke. The colored enamels are then laid on; thin 
when opaque, thick when to be transparent after fusion. Usually the entire dec- 
oration is fused at one firing. Hizen porcelain and faience have usually lively 
tints in the style called saishiki (many-tinted). Imari is the sea-port. 

Owari and Mino.— Most of the work of these two provinces is Sometsuki por- 
celain or blue ware. The finest deep cobalt glazes are from Owari. Vases, flower- 
holders, tables, wall-pieces, screens, fan and poem-plaques, and large pictures are 
wrought in faience, coated with a film of finest kaolin, on which artistic symbols 
and figures are wrought. Seto is the chief place of manufacture, and Nagoya of 
sale. Owari also is famous for its cloisonne work, both on copper and porce- 
lain. The application of this delicate art of applying enamel in cells or between 
threads of metal, producing the effect of shining silver or gold among dead tints 
of minerals, or of metallic outlines with opaque shadings in color, to porcelain, 
is, in its development, at least, a recent Japanese art. 

Kaga.— The characteristic color of Kaga ware is red, produced by rouge or 
oxide of iron, with bands and lines of gold, and much figure decoration. Five 
miles from the town of Terai are the clay beds of Kutani (nine valleys), whence 
the ware is marked and named. The colors and paintings are not done by one 
firing as in Hizen, but the clay form, the black tracing of the design, the red 
glaze, and the gold lines receive each a baking. 

Kioto. — At Awata, a village in the suburbs of Kioto, faience having a yellower 
tint than the buff wares of Satsuma, but crackled, is made, called tamago yaki 
(egg-pottery), the decoration being usually a few sprays of grasses or flowers, 
with birds and insects. Eraku ware has gold figures of poets, warriors, Chinese 
sages, or mythical heroes and creatures, upon a red glaze or dead surface. All 
kinds of faience and true porcelain are made in Kioto, the "pierced," the "net- 
ted," "sieve," "rice-grain," "egg-shell," " moku-me" "watered," "wood-grain- 
ed," "marbled," "wicker-work," "woven," "veined," "shell-pink," cloisonne, 
celadon, lacquered, figured in high relief, and in imitation of inlaid gold and bronze 
work, called zogan, etc., etc. " Yaki " is the general native term for baked clay. 
On Awaji island are made delicate buff crackle and celadon faience. Banko- 
yaki is made of a tough brown clay in Ise, taking its name after the inventor. 
The ware (usually teapots and small utensils) is very light and thin, having 
sprays and splashes, and perfect designs in opaque colored enamels slightly 
raised from the surface. 

Tokio and Yokohama.— Very little work is produced in the neighborhood of 
these places, except imitations, though some are very fine, and will puzzle any 
one, except a real expert, to tell them from "old Satsuma" or "old Hizen" 
wares. Scores, if not hundreds, of artists and decorators live in these cities who 
buy baked ware from Owari, Mino, Hizen, Kaga, and local potteries, and decorate 
and sell it to foreign customers. Most Japanese pottery and porcelain is stamp- 
ed, scratched, or marked in color with the name of the place where made, the 
name of the decorator, or the company which sells it. There is an excellent na- 
tive work of Japanese faience, in five volumes, by the learned antiquary Ninagawa 
Noritane. For some good notes, see Official Catalogue of the Japanese Section, 
International Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. A work on the History, Ideals, 
Symbolism, and Technique of Japanese Art is in preparation by the author. 



NOTES AND APPENDICES. 



659 



CLIMATE AND METEOROLOGY. 

MONTHLY AND YEARLY AVERAGE (1863-1869) OF THE THERMOMETER (FAHR.). 



Yearly Average. 



1863 


59° 


1864 


58°.02 


1865 


59U3 


1S66 


57°.01 


1S6T 

1868 


59°.26 

58°.46 


1869 


5S°.08 



Monthly Average. 



January 40°. 28 

February 41°. 22 

March 47°.03 

April 56°.15 

May 64°.0T 

Juue 69°.44 



July 75°. 31 

August 7S°.49 

September... 70° .48 

October 61°. 58 

November... 52° 
December 43°. 45 



Average of 1863-1869 5S°.22 

Highest monthly maximum (August, 1865) 91° 

Lowest monthly minimum (January, 1864) 20* 

"Yokohama is situated in lat. 35° 26' N., and long. 139° 39' E. from Greenwich. 
It is about thirty-seven miles from Cape King, the nearest point on the Pacific. 
The Bay of Tedo at Yokohama is about twelve miles wide. The city is, for the 
most part, built on a plain, about from two to ten feet above high-water mark, at 
the mouth of a valley opening on the bay. The valley is about a mile wide, and 
extends back in a westerly direction some three miles, gradually narrowing to a 
quarter of a mile. It is bounded on each side by a row of hills, about one hun- 
dred and twenty feet wide. It is cultivated in paddy fields, is consequently wet 
and marshy, and is exposed to the sweep of north-east and easterly winds from 
across the bay, and to south-west and westerly winds through the valley. 

"The winds of Japan are at all seasons exceedingly irregular, frequently vio- 
lent, and subject to sudden changes. The north-east and easterly winds are gen- 
erally accompanied by rain, with a high and falling barometer, and are usually 
not violent. The south-west and westerly winds are generally high, often vio- 
lent, and accompanied with a low barometer. It is from the south-west thai; u he 
cyclones or typhoons almost invariably come. On clear and pleasant days, which 
are in excess of all others, there is a regular land and sea breeze at all seasons. 

" The rain -fall is above the average of most countries, varying greatly, howev- 
er, in different years. About two-thirds of the rain falls during the six months 
from April to October. 

"The steady hot weather, when it is considered safe to change to light sum- 
mer clothing, does not generally set in till the latter decade of June or 1st of 
July, and ends, often very abruptly, about the middle of September. 

" The snow-fall is for the most part light, not often exceeding two or three 
inches. In 1861, on one occasion, it fell to the depth of twenty inches. The ice 
seldom exceeds one inch or one and a half inches in thickness. Fogs are rarely 
noticed, so also is hail. Thunder-storms are neither frequent nor severe. Earth- 
quake shocks are frequent, averaging more than one a month; but hitherto, 
since the residence of foreigners in Yokohama, no very severe or dangerous 

Since 1888 one of the best meteorological systems in the world has been estab- 
lished in Tokio by the Imperial government, which issues three daily forecasts 
of the weather, and publishes frequent bulletins and annual reports. 



INDEX. 



A in Japanese, pronounced as a in arm. See 
also under Ha. 

Abacus. See Illustration, 281. 

Abbe Sidotti, 262, 263. 

Abbot, 394. 

Abdication, 114, 122. 

Ablutions, 92, 97, 98, 506. 

Aborigines of America, 29, 31, 299, 5T9-581. 

Aborigines of Japan, 26-35, 55, 65, 68-70, 86, 
S7, 105, 206. 

Absent-minded man, 496. 

Abusive names, 512 (note). 

Actors, ST, 455, 515. 

Acupuncture, 206, 207. 

Adams, Mr. F. O., author of "History of Ja- 
pan," 573, 5S6, 593, 595, 607. 

Adams, Will, 261, 262. 

Adoption, 277, 5S4. 

Adzuma, 72, 264, 265, 362. 

Agate, 603. 

Age of persons, 58, 60, 93, 449, 600. 

Agricultural class, 106, 107, 2S0, 600. 

Agriculture, 49, 106, 107, 523, 57S, 605-607. 

Aidzu, Prince of, 309, 310, 313, 411, 412. 

Aino, 26-35, 55, 206, 565. 

Akadzuki, 399. 

Akamagaseki. See Shimonoseki. 

Akamatsu, 564. 

Akechi, 231, 238, 618. 

Alaska, 15, 579. 

Albino ponies, 382. 

Alcock, Sir Rutherford, 305, 349, 369, 594, 595. 

Aleutian Islands, 117, 579, 5S0. 

Alkali, 356. 

Almshouses, 550. 

Alphabets, 91, 92, 162. 

Alum, 603. 

Ama. See Nun, and 139 (note). 

Amakusa, 253. 

Amaterasu, 45, 47, 48, 50, 553. 

Amber, 603. 

America, relations with Japan, 29, 31, 299, 
324, 579-5S1, 591. See, under Perry, United 
States. 



America, P. M. S. S., 550. 
American geographical names, 329. 
Americans in Japan, 327-352, 533, 545-548, 550, 

561, 577, 578, 605, 607. 
Amethyst, 603. 
Amida, 252. 
Amulets, 228, 440. 
Amusements. See Games, Sports, Theatre, 

Cards. 
Ando, 155, 156. 
Angels, 384, 489. 

Animals, domestic, 23-25, 111 (note). 
Animals, wild, 24, 420, 542. 
Anjiro, 249. 
Antimony, 22, 602, 603. 
Antisell, Thomas, Dr., 19 (note), 26 (note) 

605. 
Antoku, 134, 136, 139 (note), 1S8. 
Aqueducts, 286, 394. 
Arabic numerals, 591. 
Arata, S3. 
Arbitration, 567. 
Archers, 121, 136, 137, 388. 
Archery, 226. 227, 388. 
Architecture, 89, 90, 392-398, 532, 533, 563. 
Area of Japan, 17, 605. 
Armor, 219, 220. 
Armorer, 132. 

Armorial bearings. See Crests. 
Arms. See Military iveapons. 
Army, .104, 105, 595-597. 
Arrows, 33, 121, 136, 137, 1S9, 190, 227, 3SS, 

422, 575; poison, 35. 
Arsenic, 550, 602, 603. 
Art, 92, 94, 123, 334, 388, 3S9, 390, 39S, 5S1, 

5S2. 
Artisans, 46, 53, 280, 2S1 ; guilds, 227, 512, 

600. 
Artists, 92, 123, 379, 3S8, 522. 
Asakura, 419 (note). 
Asakusa, 435-48S. 
Asama yama, 21. 
Asano family, 275. 
Ashikaga, 154, 1S8, 1S9, 192, 249, 309. 



662 



IXBEX. 



Ashikaga Takauji, 156, 182, 183, 184, 1S5, 189, 

190. 
Ashikaga Yoshiaki, 230. 
Asiatic Society of Japan, 351. 
Aspects of nature, 25, 55, 83, 132, 154, 473, 

477. 
Assassinations, 121, 148, 222, 231, 309, 346, 349, 

362,374,377,574. 
Association of ideas, 449, 581, 5S2. 
Asters, 436. 

Aston, Mr. W. G., quoted, 213. 
Atago yama, 239, 374, 435. 
Atsumori, 145. 
Augury, 46, 449, 581, 582. 
Augustinian friars, 250. 
Austin, Don. See Konishi. 
Avalanches, 540, 542. 
Awa, 131, 329, 573. 
Awabi, 521. 
Awaji, 44. 
Awodo, 149. 
Awomori, 608. 
Ayuthaya, 246. 
Azai, 241, 242. 
Azaleas, 436, 565. 
Aztec, 299, 580. 
Azuchi yama, 231, 233. 

B, from the Japanese h or/, by nigori, or in 

combination. 
Baboon, 582. 

Baby, 32, 354-356, 444, 472, 570. 
Bacchus, 488. 
Backgammon, 458. 
Badgers, 521. 
Bakin, 478. 

Bakufu, 141, 296, 349, 444. 
Ball, game of, 209, 455, 456, 529, 530. 
Bamboo, 23, 132, 359, 365, 417, 418, 432, 441, 

514, 519, 531, 537, 582. 
Banishment, 115, 116, 121, 127, 148, 151. 
Bank-notes, pictures from, 121, 136, 153, 155, 

ISO. 
Banks, 591. 
Banner of Taira, 136 ; of Minamoto, 136 ; of 

Nitta, 154 ; of Hideyoshi, 238 ; of Iyeyasu, 

220, 228, 267, 315. 
Barbers, 334. 
Bark, 33, 46, 89, 90. 
Barley-sugar, 3S0. 
Barriers, 68 (note), 206. See Gates. 
Barrows, 28, 245, 269, 545. 
Bates, Mr., 549. 
Baths, 64, 77, 94, 446, 549, 550. 
Battledore and shuttlecock, 455. 
Bay of Yedo, 70, 329, 330. 
Beans, 49, 420, 427, 454, 469. 
Beards, 31, 32, 93, 217, 523 ; cuts, 37, 62, 564. 
Beds, 423. 



Beef, 472, 607. 

Beggars, 358, 513. 

Beggary, abolition of. 552 

Bellows, 365. 

Bells, 88, 200, 201, 206, 290, 381, 433, 479. 

Benkei, 206, 458. 

Beri-beri. See Kakke. 

Bette, 373, 374, 546. 

Betto, 236, 353, 359, 427, 512, 574. 

Binzuru, 385. 

Birds, 24, 177. 

Bishamon, 190. 

Biwa, Lake, 177, 414, 415, 419. 

Black-eyed Susan, 359. 

Blakiston, Captain, 26 (note). 

Blacksmith, 46, 365. 

Blind men, 495, 509, 511, 600. 

Boats, 31, 63, 331, 332, 360, 408, 409, 427, 521. 

Bozii, 41. 

Bombardments, 309, 311, 350, 592, 594. 

Bombay, P. and O. S. S., 329. 

Bonzes, 162,175, 198, 204, 207, 231-235, 250, 253. 

379, 426, 470, 510, 513, 525, 538. 
Botany, 22. 
Bows, 226. 
Bread, 260, 44S. 

Breakfast, 424, 355, 409, 410, 544. 
Breath-sucking, 211 (note), 222. 
Breech-loaders, 246, 411, 524, 573, 596. 
Bridgeford, Captain, 26 (note). 
Bridges, 44, 354, 563. 
Brinckley, Lieutenant, 533 (note). 
Brocade, 315, 562. 
Bronzes, 199, 203, 423. 
Brooks, Hon. Charles Wolcott, 579, 5S0. 
Brown, Kev. S. K., 160, 263. 
Brunton, Mr. R. H., 608. 
Bryan, Mr. S.W., 591. 
Buddhism, 80, 84, 114, 15S, 175, 198, 22S, 251, 

297, 554, 555. 
Bugs, 157. 
Bund, 330, 353. 
Bungalows, 330, 370. 
Buugo, 24S, 249, 250, 253. 
Buuio, 5S6. 

Burial, 92, 437, 438, 439, 46S, 
Burmah, 246. 
Butchers, 332, 357, 472, 607. 



C. See under K or & 

Cactus, 386. 

Calendar, 113, 122. 

California, 299, 579-581. 

Camellia, 265, 290, 333, 42S, 436, 510, 514, 565. 

Camphor-trees, 190, 455, 576. 

Canals, 419. 
I Candles, 446, 447. 
' Cannon, 243, 257, 408, 411. 
| Cape, King, 32S. 



INDEX. 



663 



Capital, 5T, 110, 111. 

Capron, General Horace, 19 (note), 550, 605, 

607, 619 (note). 
Cards, 42S, 430 ; games, 456, 457. 
Cars, 197 (note), 212. See Railway. 
Carp, 463, 439, 617. 
Carpenters, 46, 227, 357, 365, 443. 
Carts, 332, 333. 

Carving, 33, 94, 157, 203, 288-290, 523. 
Cash, 243, 332, 355, 360, 496, 5S7, 611. 
Castira. See Sponge-cake. 
Castles, 217, 2S3, 392, 393, 545, 547, 550. 
Catapults, 177. 

Cats, 128, 449, 451, 487, 495, 502, 505, 509. 
Cemeteries, 287, 290, 346, 513, 514. 
Censer, 382. 
Censors, 295, 299, 587. 
Census, 174, 600, 601. 
Centennial Exposition of the United States, 

576, 592, 598. 
Centipedes, 550. 
Cereals, 48, 608. 
Chamberlain, 116, 527. 
Character of the Japanese, 65, 106, 107, 251, 

257, 312, 343, 539, 542, 550, 569, 570. 
Charcoal, 22, 33, 356, 519, 549. 
Charity, 369. 

Charlevoix quoted, 247, 263. 
Checkers, 458, 503. 
Cheese, 505. See Beans. 
Cherry blossoms, 384, 582. 
Chess, 458. 

Children, 354, 421, 429, 437, 452-465. 
Children's books, 491, 492. 
Children's games and sports, 452^65. 
Chin (lap-dog), 209, 210. 
China, 176, 186, 242, 418, 552, 572, 575, 576. 
Chinese, 54, 58, 242, 452, 453, 473, 512, 572, 576, 

600. See Preface. 
Chinese in Japan, 331, 338, 351, 352, 566, 567. 
Chishi, 600. 

Chishima (Kuviles), 601. See Map. 
Chiuzenji, 284, 285. 
Chopsticks, 221, 470, 514. 
Choshiu clan, 267, 269, 277, 301, 309, 310, 311, 

312, 313, 321, 593-595. 
Choteki, 183, 184, 310, 313, 315. 
Christianity, 247-263, 578. 
Christians, native, 243, 247, 263, 266, 531, 552, 

573, 578. 
Christmas-day, 537, 538. 
Chronology, 59, 122, 123, 599. 
Chrysanthemum, 67, 384, 582, 608. 
Cipango. See Jipangii. 
Cities of Japan, 392. 
Civil officials, 103, 110, 116, 141, 196 (note), 

214-216, 526. 
Civil wars, 119, 122, 130-139, 151, 154-157, 182- 

196, 230-235, 238-240, 266-269, 316-319, 575. 



Civilization, 59, 75, 80-84, 292, 31S-324, 352, 

572, 579, 590. 
Clans, 216, 217. See under names of military 

families. 
Clark, Mr. E. W., 527, 546, 547, 548. 
Classes of society, 280, 540, 552. 
Cleanliness, 97, 356. 
Climate, 25, 5S8, 590. 
Clocks, 546. 

Clogs, 118, 370, 372, 468, 4S2. 
Cloistered emperor, 120, 134. 
Clothing, 90, 106, 107, 208, 331, 361, 366, 370, 

3S3, 384, 427, 520, 524, 534, 546, 550, 562-565, 

572, 596. 
Cloud-cluster, 49, 5S, 69. 
Coal, 516, 602-605. 
Coasts of Japan, IS, 25, 56, 405, 608. 
Cobalt, 603. 
Cocks, 46, 618. 
Cocks, Mr. Richard, 261. 
Codes of law, 361, 362, 568, 569, 583. 
Coinage, 40, 286, 547, 607, 60S, 610. 
College. See Imperial College. 
College of Engineering, 307, 602. 
Columbus, 247. 
Commandments, 96, 194, 195. 
Commerce, 63, 246, 597. 
Compradores, 338. 
Conchs, 220, 269. 
Concubines, 108, 556, 557. 
Confucianism, 80, 83, 160, 297, 557, 559. 
Conquerors, 28, 55, 68-70, 75, 91. 
Conquest of ancient Japan, 28. 
Consul, United States, 349, 402, 568. 
Consulate, United States, 331, 333, 349. 
Consuls, 349, 350, 376, 567. 
Contracts, 402, 577. 
Convents, 199. 
Coolie traffic, 566-567. 
Coolies, 331, 355, 360, 361. 
Coopers, 357, 365. 

Copper, 22, 111 (note), 199, 201, 602-605. 
Copperas, 603. 
Corea, 63, 79, S3, 241-246, 28G, 324, 364, 571* 

576. 
Cormorants, 209. 
Cornes,Eev.Mr.,3S3. 
Corpse, 468. 
Cosmogony, 43-45. 
Cotton, 91, 230, 361. 
Councils, 103, 140, 149, 286. 
Court noble, 93, 101-114, 216, 217, 321. 
Courtesans, 139, 555, 556. 
Cranes, 3S1. 
Creation, 43, 44. 

Cremation, 175 (note), 198 : ^37, 513, 514. 
Crests, imperial, 66, 67, 271, 274, 275, 410. 
Crime, 568. 
Criminals, 568, 569, 600. 



664 



INDEX. 



Crocodiles, 511. 

Cross of Satsuma, 274. 

Cross-trampling, 257. 

Crow, 58, 44S, 449, 505. 

Crucifixion, 255, 554. 

Crystal, 381, 479, 603. 

Cuckoo, 581. 

Cucumbers, 481. 

Curios, .351. 

Currents, 27, 579-581. 

Curtains, 102, 114, 141, 211, 212, 353, 398, 410. 

Custom-houses, 332, 349, 364 ; receipts, 598. 

Cutlery, 224, 225, 357, 422. 

Cuttle-fish, 415, 521. 

Cyclopedias, 41, 78 (note), 247 (note). 

D, from t, by nigori, or in combination. 

Dai Butsxi, 199, 200. 

Dai Jo Dai Jin, 103, 119, 309, 59S. 

Dai Jo Kuan, 103, 577. 

Dai Koku, 49, 425. 

Dai-kon. See Radishes. 

Daimio, 217, 321, 322, 402, 403. 

"Dai Nihon Shi," 40, 122 (note), 298. 

Dai Nippon, 17, 85. 

Dairi, 197. 

Daizaifu,177. 

Dancing, 47, 48, 53, 378, 456, 528, 529, 573, 618. 

Dannoiira, 135. 

Daruma, 458-460. 

Darwinian theory, 9, 542. 

Datte family, 274, 586. 

Dazaifu. See Daizaifu. 

Deaf men, 496. 

Debt, national, 598. 

Decima. See Deshima. 

Deformed persons, 472, 570. 

De Long, Hon. Charles E., 340, 573. 

Dentist, 469. 

Departments of government, 103, 104, 577, 

598. 
Deshima, 240, 257, 258, 2G0, 566, 602. 
Dewa, 74, 142. 
Dezima. See Deshima. 
Dice, 456. 

Dickens, Charles, 533. 
Diet, 90. 

Dikes, 531, 571, 605, 607. 
Dinner, 340, 341, 423, 424, 542, 543, 548, 550. 
Diplomacy, foreign, 347, 348, 349, 350, 377, 592,' 

595. 
Dirk, 221, 222,515,534. 
Diseases, 258, 259, 410, 570, 571. 
Disinheritance, 5S4. 
Divination, 46, 148. 
Divinity of the mikado, 36, 59, 88, 94, 95, 562, 

566. 
Divorce, 557. 
Dixon, Dr. Walter, quoted, 253, 583. 



Do, or circuits, 65, 84. See Map. 

Doctors, 207, 571. See Physicians 

Dogs, 33, 209, 358, 390, 451, 468, 471. 

Dominicans, 250. 

Dosha, 207. 

Dosia. See Dosha. 

Dr in Japanese words. See under Ri. 

Dragon, 49, 381, 425, 478-480, 582, 616. 

Dreams, 472. 

Dress. See Clothing. 

Dual system of government. See Duarchy. 

Duarchy, 140, 146, 182, 185, 186. 

Ducks, wild, 420, 422, *17, 537. 

Dumb persons, 600. 

Dungeons, 165, 184. 

Dutch, 254, 257, 258, 311, 319, 431, 571 (note), 

577, 593, 596, 602. 
Dwarfed trees, 3S4, 386. 
Dyers, 365, 509. 
Dynasties, 185, 187. 

E. pronounced as e in prey; before a final 

liquid, or double consonant, as e in men. 
Ear-monument, 245. 
Earthquake-fish, 486. 
Earthquakes, 21, 477, 486, 547, 589." ■ 
Eastern Japan, 68-70, 391, 392. 
Ebisu, 28, 29, 52. 

Echizeu, Prince of, 305, 307, 308, 313. 
Echizen, 176, 271, 272, 276, 300, 307, 310, 313, 

586, 5S7. 
Eclipses, 52, 471, 472. 
Edicts, 369. 

Edinburgh and Yedo, 279. 
Education, 150, 199, 200, 202, 205, 294, 297, 371, 

373, 558-561, 563 (note), 573, 578. 
Eels, 496. 

Eggs, 494, 517, 527, 528. 
Elephant, 479. 
Elephantiasis, 570. 
Elves, 494, 495. 

Ema, Lord of Hell, 387, 389, 507. 
Embassies, 63, 83, 84, 176, 195, 242, 250, 323, 

324, 572, 576. 
Embassy of 1872, 25, 323, 324, 540, 550, 572-574. 
Emori, Mr., 403, 530, 531. 
Emperors, list of, 123. 
Empresses, list of, 123. 
Enamel-ware, 203, 546. 
English, 254, 261, 262, 341, 342, 343, 577. 
Enomoto, 319, 564. 
Enoshitna, 154, 404. 
Entails, 277. 
Eructation, 11 (note). 
Escheat, 5S5. 

Espionage, 295, 349, 369. See Spies. 
Eta, 279,^324, 540, 567. 
Etiquette, 210, 211, 21S, 222-225, 518. See 

Manners. 



INDEX. 



665 



Eto Shinipei, 563, 574, 575. 
Eurasian children, 351, 352. 
Evenings, 456. 
Evergreens, 22, 23, 359. 
Execution ground, 361. 
Executions. See Laws. 
Exile, 115, 127, 148, 256, 305. See Banish- 
ment. 
Extra-territoriality, 316, 572. 
Eyes, 29, 30, 208 (note), 442, 444, 455. 

F, for words in Dutch books, or in writings 
copied therefrom, see under H, or A. In 
foreign books, / or ff is often inserted, or 
made terminal in a Japanese word which 
ends in an open vowel. Thus Shikoku 
and Hokusai, appear as Shikokf, Hokffsai, 
etc. 

Faces, Aino and Yamato, 29, 30, 401. 

Falconry, 209, 280. 

Families, noble, 101-114. 

Family, 584, 585. 

Family names, 109. 

Famine, 195, 513. 

Fans, 87, 51S-520, 527, 529, 548. 

Farmers, 106, 107, 513, 600. 

Fauna, 24, 581. 

Faxiba. See Hideyoshi. 

Feast of Dolls, 460. 

Feast of Flags, 463. 

Female characters — Tatara, 5S ; Yamato 
hime, 61 ; Jingu kogo, chap. viii. ; Haruko, 
81; Tokiwa, 123; Tadamori's wife, 125, 
126; Masago, 126; Tomoye, 135 (note); 
Taigo, 137 ; Tokiko, 137 ; Tamayori, 170 ; 
Kadoko, 183 ; Ise no Taiyu, 210 ; Murasaki 
Shikibu, 212 ; Shibata Katsuiye's wife, 238, 
240 ; Adzuma girl, 265. 

Female divinity, 45. 

Fencing. 432, 433. 

Feng Shuey, 473. 

Festivals, 92, 97, 520, 525, 526, 538. 

Feudalism, 57, 58, 94, 95, 104, 214-228, 270-290, 
583-585. 

Feuds, 216, 217, 222, 223. 

Filial piety, 123, 124, 147, 555. 

Fillmore, President, 329, 347. 

Finances, 573, 574, 598. 

Finger-nails, 467, 469. 

Firando. See Hirado. 

Fires, 375, 398, 471,563. 

Fire-clay, 603. 

Fire-lookouts, 286. 

Fire-omens, 471. 

Fire-proofs, 310, 356, 370, 368, 394. 

Fire-works, 521. 

Fish, 24, 25. 

Fishermen, 328, 329, 521, 522, 546. 

Fishing, 70, 209, 470, 521. 



Fish-ponds, 397, 436. 

Flag of Japan, national, 362, 536, 564, 

Fleas, 544, 550. 

Flies, 505, 528. 

Flint and steel, 356, 357, 364, 446, 603. 

Flirting, 211 (note). 

Flowers, 23, 384, 386, 387, 397, 514, 581. 

Fogs, 589, 505. 

Folk-lore, 491-503. 

Food, 23, 24, 49, 90. See Diet. 

Foot-ball, 148. 

Foreigner-haters. See Jo-i. 

Foreigners, 327-352. 493, 513, 549, 578, 600, 615. 

Forests, 22, 418, 543, 548. 

Forfeiture, 585. 

Formosa, 218, 257, 258, 571, 572, 575, 576. 

Fortifications, 179, 362, 407. 

Fortune-tellers, 505. 

Forty-seven ronins, 362, 400. 

Fox myths, 495, 5S0, 582. 

Foxes, 420, 495, 503. 

Franciscans, 249, 254, 255, 256, 409. 

Francis Xavier, 249, 250, 251, 412. 

Freeman, Captain, J.H., 328. 

French, 259, 261, 331, 346, 350, 351, 383, 399, 577. 

French relations with Japan, 331, 593-596. 

Frogs, 508. 

Fuchiu, 422, 547. 

Fudai, 275, 394, 403, 5S5, 586. 
J Fuji san, or Fuji yama (mountain), 18, 142, 
330, 374, 404, 415, 472, 530, 546, 582. 

Fuji River, 132. 
I Fujiwara, 109, 115, 116, 150, 237, 270. 

Fukui, 170, 189, 190, 238, 423, 536. 
! Fukui Han, 418, 526, 587. 

Fnkuwara, 120, 135, 406. 

Fukuzawa Yukichi, 192 (note), 320, 400, 548. 

Funerals, 438, 439, 513. 

Fusan, 243, 580. 

Fushimi, 240, 266, 313, 408, 411-413. 

Fushimi no Miya, 563. 

Fusi yama. See Fuji san. 

Futen, 484. 

G, pronounced hard. From k by nigort, 
or in combination. Few pure Japanese 
words begin with g. 

Gambling, 344, 50,369. 

Games, 209, 210, 452-465, 529, 530. 

Gardeners, 384-3S6. 

Garlic, 73. 

Gas, illuminating, 21, 333, 384. 

Gates, 206, 219, 394, 411, 421, 427. 

Gate-keepers, 436, 441. 

Gazetteers, 41 ; of Echizen, 176, 419, 422. 

Geese, 425, 447, 449, 537, 582. 

Geiho, 459. 

Geisha, 209, 408, 418, 526, 573. 

Gen. See Minamoto. 



666 



INDEX. 



Genghis Khan, 145. 

Genji. See Minamoto. 

Genji and Heike, 45S, 464, 492, 529. 

Genji Monogatari, 212. 

Geography of Japan, 17-25, 56, 6S-74, 84, S5, 
329, 360, 391, 392, 419 (note), 596, 601, 607, 60S. 
See Map. 

Geology of Japan, 18, 19, 602-605. 

Germans, 247 (note), 331, 332, 399. 571 (note). 

Ghosts, 138, 460-473. 

Ghouls, 492, 493. 

Gifu, 267. 

Girdles, 354, 359, 379, 408, 416, 470. 

Glass, 448. 

Glass-sponges, 521. 

Globe-trotters, 339. 

Go, honorary prefix. See under letters fol- 
lowing go. 

Goa, 249. 

Goat, 582. 

Goddesses, 44-53, 553. 

God-letters, 92. 

Go-Daigo, 152, 182, 183, 184, 189. 

Gohei, 46, 285, 410. 

Go-Kameyama, 192. 

Gokenin, 277. 

Go-Komatsu, 192. 

Gold, 602-605, 608. 

Golden fish, 546. 

Golden gutter, 410, 411, 546. 

Goldshorough Inlet, 262. 

Gompachi and Komurasaki, 400. 

Gongen, 198, 284. 

Goroza, 230. 

Gosanke. See Sanke. 

Go-Shirakawa, 119, 134. 

Goto Shojiro, 312, 317, 322, 574. 

Gotoba, 134, 151. 

Gourds, 238. 

Government, 58, 94, 103, 104, 577, 578, 598. 

Gray, Dr. Asa, 24. 

Griffin, 340. 

Grigsby, Prof. W. E., 583. 

Guard-houses, 363, 376, 410, 550. See Gates. 

Guards, 105, 133. See Bette. 

Gun-ken system, 103, 104, 577, 600. 

Gunpowder, 248, 258, 362, 513. 

Guns, 248, 258. 

H. In Dutch and Portuguese books / oft- 
en takes the place of h. See under F. In 
combination, or by nigori, becomes &, /, 
or p. 

Hachimau. See Ojin Tenno. 

Hnchiman, temple of, 131, 410, 411. 

Hachiman Taro, 117. 

Hachijo, 121. 

Hair, 31, 217, 329, 354, 431, 432 (note), 471, 508, 
520, 523. 



Hakama (kilt or loose trowsers), 366, 370, 413, 

534. 
Hakodate, 590. 
Hakkenden, 47S. 

Hakone, Lake, 64; Pass, 206, 548. 
Hakuzan, IS, 21, 514, 530, 532. 
Hamamatsu, 392, 546. 
Han, clan, or local feudal government, 418, 

425, 522, 535 (note), 586, 587, 600. 
Eancura, 4" 4-416. 
Hand or head kerchief, 107 (note), 201, 211 

(note), 355. 
Haori (dress-coat embroidered with crests), 

504, 534. 
Hara-kiri. See Seppuku. 
Harbors, 25, 329-331, 348, 352, 363, 405, 406, 

419, 608. 
Hare, 582. 
Harima, 250. 

Harris, Townsend,Hon., 283, 348, 401,577,595, 
Haruko, 36 (note), 80, 81. 
Hashiba. See Hideyoshi. 
Hashimoto Sanai, 306 (note). 
Hashimoto, Dr., 306, 514, 535. 
Hashimoto village, 409. 
Hatakeyama Yoshinari, 399. 
Hatamoto, 270, 403, 586, 587. 
Hats, 355, 356, 357, 372, 426, 511, 546. 550. 
Hatoba, 331, 349. 
Hawaii, 567, 579-581. 
Hawking, 209. 
Hawks, 409. 

Hayashi, Dai Gaku no Kami, 303, 304. 
Headache, 389. 
Head-dress, 397. See Hair. 
Headless horsemen, 537. 
Heating apparatus, 356, 414. 
Hei. See Taira. 
Heike Monogatari, 122. 
Heishi. See Taira. 
Heir, choice of, 64, 557, 584. 
Heko, Mr., 548 (note), 580, 581. 
Helmets, 219, 366, 423. 
Hemi village, 262. 
Hemp, 46, 422, 449, 531. 
Hepburn, Dr. J. C, 160, 577, 588-590. 
Hero-worship, 87, 88, 160. 
Heron, 24, 177, 511. 
Hibachi. See Heating apparatus. 
Hidenobu, 266. 

Hidetada, 256, 284, 2S5, 289, 290. 
Hideyasu, 272, 419 (note), 436. 
Hideyori, 245, 255, 256, 266, 284. 
Hideyoshi, 230, 236-246, 254, 255, 270, 410, 435. 
Higashi Kuze, 317. 
Higo, 42 (note), 274, 277, 523. 
Hikone, 231, 267, 310. 
Hildreth, 247 (note), 256, 271. 
Hime, 61 (note). 



INDEX. 



667 



Himeshima, 593. 

Hinin, 280, 540. 

Hiogo, 120, 133, 190, 312, 393, 405, 406. 

Hi r ado, 254, 256, 261. 

Hiragana, 162, 174, 492. 

Hirata, 300. 

Hiroshima, 392, 394. 

Hirozawa, 312. 

History, materials of, 36-42, 298, 299. 

Hitotsubashi, 563 (note). See Reiki. 

Hiuga, 55. 

Hiyeizan, 134, 232, 233. 

Hizen clan, 321, 5T1, 575, 586. 

Hoffman, Dr. J. J., quoted, 59. 

Hoffman, J. J., 59 (note). 

Hogs, 382, 420, 543, 580. 

Hojo family, 127, 12S, 146-157, 165-181, 404 

Hojo of Odawara, 217, 265. 

Hojo Tokimasa. See Tokimasa. 

Hokkaido, 601, 605, 607. 

Hokke, classic, 285. 

Holidays, 453. See Festivals. 

Hollanders, 258-260, 512 (note). See Dutch. 

Hokusai, 30, 91, 107, 223, 236, 333, 357, 360, 365, 

379, 416, 426, 441, 442, 447, 487, 524, 528. 
Homio, 114, 2S8, 514. 
Homnra, 350. 
Hondo, 17, 18, 19, 27, 28, 29, 69, 84, 85, 106, 602- 

605. 
Honen, 145, 170. 
Honey, 510. 
Hongs, 337, 338. 
Honnoji, 231. 

Honor, code of, 156, 157, 191, 192, 221-225, 569. 
Horseback game. See Polo. 
Horses, 340, 365, 366, 3S2, 427, 471, 512, 516, 

522, 619. 
Hosokawa family, 274. 
Hosokawa Yoriyuki, 193. 
Hospitals, 346, 400, 571. 
Hotels, 2S3, 414, 544, 550. 
Hot springs, 21. 
Household customs. 
Houses, ancient, 90, 420, 435 ; number of, 600. 

See Yashiki. 
Hubner, Baron, 349. 
Hunting, 537. 

Hymn, national, 387, 524, 565. 
Hymns, Christian, 351, 577. 

I, pronounced as i in machine ; before a final 
liquid, as i in tin. For names in Dutch 
books, see under T or E. 

I (rank), 139 (note). 

Ibuki yama, 73, 207, 231. 

Ice, 589. 

Idols, 387, 388, 510, 526, 541. 

Idzu, 121, 129, 164, 405. 

Ii, Kamon no Kami, 305, 307, 401, 550. 



Ike Island, 243. 

Ikeda, 230. 

Dxegami, 165. 

Ikko. See Shin sect. 

Immortality of the soul, 97, 161, 555. 

Imperial College of Tokio, 117 (note), 370-375, 

562, 563. 
Inaka, 488, 578. 
Inamura Saki, 154. 
Incense. See Censer. 
Indemnities, 311, 350, 377, 401, 575, 592-595. 
India, 34 (note), 111 (note), 159, 164, 174, 175. 
Indians of North America, 29, 31, 299 ; origin 

of, 579-581. 
Indigo, 531. 

Informers, 369. See Spies. 
Ink-stone, 390, 512. 
Inns. See Hotels. 
Inland Sea, 55, 56, 57, 118, 119, 120. 
Inquisition, 252, 259, 263. 
Insects, 157, 550. 
Insurrections, 58, 65, 76, 105, 215, 216, 473, 575, 

606. 
Intemperance, 526. 
Interpreters, 213, 401, 548. 
Iris, 359. 

Iron, 22, 125, 602-605. 
Iron Duke, ship, 567. 
Irrigation, 63, 64, 90, 417, 418. 
Irving, Washington, 524 (note), 537. See Rip 

Van Winkle myths. 
Ise, Mr., 523. 

Ise (shrines), 61, 73, 99, 179, 181. 
Ishida, 255. 
Ivory, 364, 502. 
Ivy, 439. 

Iwabuchi, 401, 402, 412, 422, 428, 440, 516, 518. 
Iwakura Tomomi, 312, 313, 321, 322, 399, 400, 

527, 573, 574. 
Iyemitsu, 256, 285, 286, 287. 
Iyemochi, Prince of Kii, 289, 305, 312. 
Iyesada, 273, 305. 
Iyeyasii, 230,244, 255-257, 264-269, 270-272, 275, 

276, 280-286, 287, 323, 547, 583-585. 
Iyeyoshi, 273. 
Izanagi, 44. 
Izanami, 45. 

J, derived from chi or shi by nigori, or in com- 
bination. See, also, under Y, E, or Z. 
Jamestown, United States corvette, 593. 
Japonica. See Camellia. 
Jealousy, 451, 475, 557. 
Jean Baptiste, 262, 263. 
Jeughiz Khan. See Genghis Rhan. 
Jesuits, 197, 247-263, 293, 409, 57 1. 
Jewels, 46, 50. 
Jews, 35, 337, 346. 
Ji. See Shi. 



668 



INDEX. 



Jiramu, 40, 51, 55, 56, 5S, 59. 

Jin Gi Kuan, 103. 

Jingu, 75-84, 406. 

Jinko tree, 400. 

Jin-riki-sha, 334, 335, 548, 570. 

Jito, 141. 

Jipangu, 247. 

Jodo sect, 162, 233, 290. 

Jo-i, 316, 373, 440. 

Joss-sticks, 380, 387, 498. 

Journey, 439, 467, 471. 

Judges. See Laivs, Oka. 

Jugglers, 519, 525. 

Junks, 136, 419, 579-581. 

Jun-shi, 92, 272, 273. 

Jurisprudence. See Laws. 

Justice, department of, 103. See Laws. 

K becomes g by nigori, or in combination. 

Ka. See, also, Kua. 

Kadoko, 183. 

Kadzusa, 131, 329, 573. 

Kaempfer, 56 (note), 293, 414. 

Kaga, 241, 530, 586. See Maeda. 

Kago, 264, 366, 544. 

Kagoshima, 249, 302, 309, 377, 592, 593. 

Kai Taku Shi, 26 (note), 31, 605, 007. 

Kakke, 54S (note), 570. 

Kama-itachi, 482, 483. 

Kamakura, 131, 140, 143, 155, 156, 165, 176, 1S4, 

241, 261, 404. 
Kame Ido, 400. 
Kami, 43, 72. See Shinto. 
Kami-shimo, 525, 534. 
Kano, pictures of, 479, 522. 
Kamo Eiver, 240. 
Kampira, 469, 474. 
Kanagawa, 346, 348, 349. 
Kanda Mio Jin, 188, 454, 493. 
Kanda, 18S. 
Kanda, Mr., 400. 
Kanazawa, in Sagami, 150, 404. 
Kaolin, 603. 
Kappa, 4S1, 482, 525. 
Karafto. See Saghalin. 
Karos, 310, 399, 403. 
Kashiwabara, 57. 
Kasiitera. See Sponge-cake. 
Katagana, 16, 162, 608. 
Kato Hiroyuki, 320. 
Kato Kiyomasa, 163, 220, 228, 243, 274, 311, 

315, 322. 
Katsu Awa, 302, 303, 548, 564, 574. 
Katsuki Keguro, 575. 
Katsuiye. See Shibata. 
Katsuyama, 536, 586. 
Kawasaki, 359, 360. 

Keiki, 274, 305, 310, 312, 313, 314, 315, 370. 
^emperman, Mr. P., 96 (note). 



Ken, or prefectures, 526, 577, 578, 600. See 

Chiji. 
KenchO, 538, 598. 
Kerai, 217. 

Kerosene, 420. See Petroleum. 
Kido, 312, 319, 324, 574. 
Kii family, 273, 586. 
Kii promontory, 56, 57, 405, 608. 
Kinamera Shirato, 523. 
Kinder, Major T. W., 607. 
Kin-giyo, 451. 
Kings, 195, 196 (note). 
Kioto, 110, 111, 134, 139, 156, 174, 185, 192, 194, 

249, 294, 307, 310, 317, 318, 573, 600, 608. 
Kiri Take, 285. 
Kirin, 479, 480. 
Kirishima, 50, 55. 
Kirishitan, zaka, dane, gui, 262. 
Kishiu. See Kii. 
KisokaidO. See Nakasendo. 
Kisses, 208, 210. 

Kita Mandocoro, 241. See Azai. 
Kitchen, 445, 446. 
Kites, 221, 458. 

Kiushiu, 19, 42, 255, 277, 601, 604, 605. 
Kiyomidzu, 242. 
Kiyomori, 118, 119, 120, 133, 157. 
Koban, 425, 506. 
Kobe, 405, 406. 
K5b0 Daishi, 162, 175, 284. 
Kodzuke, 72 (note). 
Kogen,188, 189. 
Kojiki, 39, 42, 51, 54. 
Kojima Takanori, 152, 153. 
Koku, 273-275,586, 605, 606. 
Kokura clan, 277, 309. 
Kokushiu daimiOs, 141, 274, 275, 288, 394 397 

407. 
Komaisu, 312. 
Komei Tenno, 36, 303, 312. 
Kominato, 163. 
Konishi, 243, 244, 255, 267, 269. 
Kosatsu, 259, 362, 368, 369, 418, 573. 
KOshi no kuni, 42 (note). 
Kotatsu, 414, 416, 542. 
Kuambaku, 109, 196 (note), 237. 
Kuammu, 232. 
Kuan-gun, 184, 233. 
Kuanou, 37S. 
Kuanrei, 194. 

KuantO, 6S, 117, 129, 141, 142, 392. 
Kublai Khan, 176, 177. 
Kubo sama, 193, 196 (note). 
Kudan zaka, 374. 
Kuge. See Court noble. 
KugiO, 148. 

Kumagaye. See Naozant. 
Kumamoto, 523. 
Kuno Zau, 284, 285, 296. 



INDEX. 



669 



Kuriles, IT, 32, 246, 579, 580. 

Kuro Shiwo, 25, 27, 299, 579-581. 

Kuroda family, 274. 

Kuroda Kiyotaka, 576. 

Kusakabe TarO, 430, 431. 

Kusanojiro, 177. 

Kusunoki Masashige, 152, 182, 190, 191, 406. 

Kusunoki Masatsura, 191, 219. 

Kuwana, 313, 411. 

L. There is no letter I in Japanese. The 
name Liu Kiu is Chinese ; Japanese, Riu 
Kiu. The Kurile, or Kuril, Islands derive 
their name from the Russian Kuril, to 
smoke, from the active volcanoes on them. 
Saghalin is Russian. See under R. 

Laborers, 132, 280, 355, 361, 393, 426, 529. See 
Coolies. 

Lacquer, 99, 157, 204, 219, 220, 366, 398, 527, 549. 

Lake Biwa. See Biwa. 

Lamps, 446, 447, 460, 525. 

Land, 107, 194, 216, 272, 277, 583-586, 605-607. 

Landscape. See Scenery. 

Language, 211, 212, 213, 260, 338, 580. 

Language, Aino, 29, 33. 

Lanterns, stone, or bronze, 273, 287-290, 3S1, 
507. 

Lanterns, paper, 375, 439, 495, 507, 528, 541. 

Lavatory, 288, 380. 

Laws, 149, 369, 568, 569, 583-585. 

Lawyers, 569. 

Lead, 602-605. 

Lecky, Mr., 197, 259. 

Legacy of Iyeyasu, 583-5S5. 

Legation, 340, 400, 401, 567, 598. 

Legends, 491-503. See Mythology. 

Leprosy, 570. 

Letters, 80, 83, 91, 92, 162, 212, 213. 

Libraries, 111, 150, 431, 432. 

Lies, 295, 304, 469. 

Liggins, Rev. J., 512. 

Light-houses, 405, 608. 

Lilies, 132, 412. 

Lions, 510, 582. 

Lips, painted, 455. 

Lists of shoguns, 156, 197, 273. 

Literature, 92, 213, 320. 

Liu Kin, 122, 248, 276, 565, 571. 

Locks, 366. 

Longevity, 5S, 60, 93, 102, 487. 

"Lost Tribes of Israel, 1 ' 35, 56 (note), 

Lotus, 163, 384, 394, 437, 439. 

Love, 208, 211, 474. 

Lowder, Mr. J. F., 5S3. 

Lucky days and signs, 466-473. 

Lucy, Mr. Alfred, 533. 

Lu-wen, 503. 

Luzon, 246. 

Lyman, Prof. B. S., 19 (note), 26 (note), 605. 



Mabuchi, 300. 

Macao, 566, 567. 

Macaroni, 422. 

Maeda, 241. 

Maeda family, 274. 

McDougall, Captain, 593, 

Magatama, jewels, 46, 53, 93. 

Magistrates, 584. See Laws. 

Magnet, 509. 

Mails, 590, 591. See Postmayi. 

Maimed persons, 472, 570, COO. 

Main island. See Hondo. 

Malays, 26 (note), 27, 87, 246. 

Males and females, 600, 601. 

Mandokoro, 140. 

Manganese, 603. 

Manners, 211, 223, 224, 361, 413, 423, 428, 430, 

517, 524, 528, 570. 
Manufactures, 202-204, 224, 225, 598, 606, 607, 

608. 
Manure, 25, 546, 606. 
Maple-tree, 211 (note), 582. 
Maps, 17, 27, 55 (note), 66, 84 (note), 243, 286, 

363, 391, 392, 519, 547, 5S6, 5SS, 601, 605, 609. 
Marble, 603. 

Marco Polo, 176, 177, 247, 249, 512. 
Maria Luz, ship, 567. 
Marine. See Naval. 
Marriage, 32, 44, 58, 93, 94, 108, 110, 115, 117, 

277, 352, 438, 467, 552, 560, 585. 
Martyrs, 256-259, 263, 305, 306, 554. 
Mariioka, 531, 532, 5S6. 
Masago, 127, 147, 14S, 150. 
Masakado, 187, 188. 
Masses, Buddhist, 252, 285, 509. 
Matches, 357, 446. 
Matsudaira, 271. 
Matsudaira, Echizen no kami, 305, 308, 313, 

397, 403. 
Matsudaira, Mochiaki, 428, 429, 525, 527, 528, 

533-535. 
Matsumae, 299. 
Matsumoto, Dr., 400. 
Matsuri, 513, 525. 
Matsuyama, 547. 
Maxims. See Proverbs. 
Mayeda. See Maeda. 
Mayeshima, H., 591. 
Meals. See Diet. 
Mechanical arts, 202, 203, 225, 227, 355-35S, 

364-366, 408, 513, 516-523, 607, 608. 
Medicine, 80, 206, 207, 467, 571. 
Medusa, Dutch man-of-war, 593. 
Melons, 510. 
Memorial tablets, 439. 
Mendez Pinto. See Pinto. 
Merchants, 125, 132, 278, 337, 338, 426, 565, 566, 

600. 
Mermaid, 390, 48S, 521. 



43 



670 



INDEX. 



Merman, 488. 

Metals, 22, 425, 199-204, 408, 602-605. 

Metempsychosis, 161, 169, 251, 390. 

Meteorology, tables, etc., 588-590. 

Mexican dollars, 332, 353, 357, 40T. 

Mexico, 299 ; Appendix I. 

Miako. See Kioto. 

Mica, 207 (note), 603. 

Mice, 521. 

Michiari, 179. 

Michizane, 115, 116. 

Miidera, 134, 200. 

Mikado, 39, 101, 102, 113, 123, 185, 186, 187, 480. 

See Mutsuhito. 
Mikuni, 176, 521, 522. 
Military arts, 65. 
Military classes, 104, 595-597. 
Military establishment, 595-597. 
Military families. See Clans, Taira, and Mi- 

namoto. 
Military government, 141. See Bakufu, Mi- 

namoto. 
Military system, 65, 104, 141, 218, 595-597. 
Military tactics, 218, 595-597. 
Military weapons, 59, 214, 228, 366, 595-597. 
Millet, 355. 

Mills, 410,513,592,608. 
Mimidzuka, 245. 
Minamoto family, 109, 124, 146, 147, 148, 1SS, 

214, 215, 216, 270, 271, 585. 
Minatogawa, 190. 
Mineral wealth, 22, 602-605. 
Mines, 283, 602-605. 
Mining laws, 602. 
Mino, 230, 392, 544, 545. 
Minobu mountain, 165. 
Mint, 286, 607, 60S. 
Miracle-figures, 38S-390. 
Mirror, 46, 364. 
Mishima, 548. 
Missionaries, Buddhist, 83, 159, 160, 162, 174, 

175. 
Missionaries, Christian, 247-263, 344, 345, 577, 

578. 
Mississippi Bay, 330, 340. 
Mitford, Mr. A. B., quoted, 287. 
Mi to family, 273, 274, 298, 305, 394. 
Mito, Prince of, 298, 301, 394. 
Mito, city. See on map, Ibaraki. 
Mitsukuri, 320. 

MitsuSka, 526, 536, 538, 563, 574. 
Miya, 61, 99. 

Moats, 240, 280, 370, 394, 396. 
Mochi, 455, 472, 497. 
Mom-ban, 436. 

Monasteries, 140, 199, 232, 233, 234. 
Money, 104, 2S6, 425, 495, 496, 547, 607, 608, 610. 
Money-order system, 591. 
Mongols, 176-181, 422. 



Monkey and crab, 493, 494. 

Monkeys, 24, 237, 382, 420, 495, 511, 542. 

Monks, 140, 199, 525. 

Monogatari, 40, 122, 213. 

Monto. See Shin sect. 

Monuments, 41, 157, 200, 203, 514. See Tombs, 

Memorial Stones. 
Monzeki temple, 362, 563. 
Moon-goddess, 49, 582. 
Morality, 80, 94, 209, 515,[569, 570, 573. 
Morality in Yokohama, 209, 344. 
MOri Arinori, 100 (note), 399, 400, 576. 
MOri family, 238, 241, 275, 309, 310, 311, 313. 
Moriyoshi, 152, 183, 184, 18S. 
Mosquito-nets, 528. 
Mother's memorial, 168, 169, 170. 
Mothers, examples of, 163, 164, 181, 190, 444, 

445, 502, 559. 
Mountains, IS, 477. 
Mourning dress, 438. 
Motoori, 100, 300. 
Moxa, 207, 468. 
Mukojima, 400. 
Mulberry, 46, 544, 582. 
Munemori, 139. 
Mungero Nakahama, 580. 
Munroe, Prof. Henry S., 19, 26 (note), 605. 
Murray, Dr. David, 563 (note). 
Music, 47, 523, 525. 
Muskets, 248. 

Mustaches, 31, 217, 425, 478. 
Mutsu, 126. 

Mutsuhito, 36, 38, 313, 317, 318, 400, 562-566. 
Mythical creatures, 477-488, 525, 549. 
Mythology, 43-53, 54-58, 72, 73, 526. ' 

Nagare KanjO, 168, 169, 170. 
Nagasaki, 240, 255, 256, 299, 391, 576. 
Nagato. See Choshiu. 
Nabeshima, 586. 
j Nagoya, 546. 
Nai Dai Jin, 103, 230. 
! Naiguai, 66, 67. 

| Nakamura (soldier), 403, 404, 410-412, 423, 427. 
I Nakamura (village), 236. 
I Nakamura Masanawo, 320, 548. 
1 NakasendO, 266. 
Nakatomi, 51, 103. 

Names of Japan, 17, 44, 59 ; of mikados, 113, 
123 ; of provinces, 42, 74, 601 ; of the peer- 
age, 109 ; of families, 117, 236 ; of feudal 
families, 216, 217, 271-276 ; of shOguns, 156, 
197, 273 ; of Government departments, 598 ; 
of horses, 512 ; of Hideyoshi, 236, 237 ; of 
ships, 597; titles of mikado, 39; ofshOgun, 
197, 286, 295 ; of daimiOs, 276. 
Naniwa, 56, 407. 
Nantaizan, 18, 284. 
Nanushi, 418, 428. 



INDEX. 



671 



Naozane, 144, 145. 

Nara, 110, 111, 199, 213. 

Nature, 4T3, 4T7. 

Naval architecture, 136, 17T, 246, 256, 419, 5T9, 
597. 

Naval battles, 136, 137, 138, 139, 177. 

Naval euterprise, 246, 597. 

Navy, 343, 362, 397, 564, 597. 

Needles, 207, 210, 505. 

Nepotism, 110, 119, 120, 147, 577. 

Neutrality, 331. 

Newspapers, 319, 337, 342, 352, 568, 590, 591. 

New-year's-day, 340, 352, 562. 

Ng ; for this combination, see under G. 

Nichiren, 163, 164, 165, 166. 

Nichiren sect, 233, 404. 

NichizO, 165. 

Night scenes, 447, 456, 460, 528, 529. 

Nigori, the impure or soft sound of a conso- 
nant, expressed in Japanese by two dots 
or a circle. Chi or shi by nigori become 
ji; ho, bo, po ; tsu, dzu; su, zu; ku, gu; 
fo, bo; etc., etc. 

Nigrito, 86, 87. 

Nihon Bashi, 369, 378. 

Nihon Guai Shi, 298, 299, 545. 

Nihongi, 39, 42, 51. 

Niigata, 573. 

Nikko, 2S4, 285, 287, 480. 

JSil,M.M. S.S.,405. 

Ningpo, 195. 

Ninigi, 50, 51. 

Ni-0, 380. 

Niphon. See Hondo. 

Nippon, 17. 

Nirvana, 158, 160, 161, 340, 387, 437. 

Nitsuki, 364, 365. 

Nitta Toshisada, 154, 155, 182, 184, 189, 190, 
404, 419 (note), 422. 

No, Japanese particle of, sometimes omitted, 
sometimes expressed. E. g., Fuji yama or 
Fuji no yama. 

Nobles, 93; orders of, 103; families, 108; 
number, 600. 

Nobori, 439, 463. 

Nobunaga, 236, 238, 250, 270, 275, 276. 

Norimono, 417. 

North-east, 472. 

Northern dynasty, 189, 192. 

Numadzu, 548. 

Numagawa, Mr., 523. 

Nunneries. See Convents. 

Nuns, 139 (note), 175 (note), 199, 600. 

Nursery rhymes, 405. 

O, pronounced as o in bone. O denotes pro- 
longed o. 

O, prefix, meaning great, large, imperial, 39 
(note). 



O (king), 39 (note), 196, 295, 380. 

O, honorary prefix, to be neglected in ana- 
lyzing a word. 

O Island, 405. See Qshima. 

O Kura ShO, 103, 104. 

Oak, 78. 

Oath, 226, 256, 286, 316. 

Obedience, 390, 465, 559, 570. 

Obiko, 65. 

Occupations, 32, 33, 63, 194, 198-208, 279-281, 
600. 

Ocean, 18, 24, 508. 

Ochre, 603. 

Odani, 544. 

Odawara, 265, 392, 549. 

Odes. 

Odori. See Tori. 

Officials, 103, 104, 140, 141, 196 (note), 295, 322, 
349, 526, 536. 

Ogaki, 267, 268, 394, 545. 

Ogasawara Morinori, 428, 536. 

Oho. See 0. 

Oils, 22, 446, 513. 

Oji, 374, 400, 548 (note). 

Ojin, TennO, 79, 117, 410, 411, 419 (note), 616. 

Oka, the judge, 500-502. 

Okasaki, 265. 

Oki Island, 151. 

Old, minister of education, 1S72, 1873 ; coun- 
selor of state, 322, 586. 

Okubo, Governor of Sado, 256. 

Okubo IchiO, 315, 548. 

Okubo Toshimiti, 302, 303, 312, 317, 318, 319, 
321, 322, 399, 574-576. 

Omens, 46, 56, 57, 64, 77, 242, 243, 267, 449, 466- 
473. 

Ometsuke. See Spies. 

Omi, 418, 544, 545. 

Omura, 250, 253. 

Oneida, U. S. S., 329, 592. 

Onna Dai Gaktc. See "Woman's Great Stu- 

_ dy.» 

Ono, 531. 

Oo, sound of oo in boot. See under U. 

Open ports, 306, 312, 317, 348, 349, 352, 598, 599, 
604. 

Opium, 570. 

Opium War, 418. 

Oranges, 331, 428, 430, 431, 517, 546. 

Ordeal, 92. 

Gregonian, P. M. S. S., 404, 405. 

Origin of Aino, 2S ; of North American In- 
dians, 479. 

Osei era, 103, 104, 300, 578. 

Oshima, 121, 122, 154. 

Ota, 229. See Nobunaga. 
! Ota Dokuan, 264, 265. 

Otani, 255. 
i Otoko yama, 410. 



672 



INDEX. 



Otokodate, 279. 
Otsu. See Shiga. 
Owari family, 273, 545, 546. 
Owo. See O. 

Ox, 24, 382, 497, 498, 509, 580, 607. 
Oyama, 154. 

Oye no Hiromoto, 141, 143. 
Oye Taku, 338. 

Ozaka, 56, 232, 233, 234, 240, 256, 266, 
313, 314, 407, 408. 



), 277, 



P is the second modification of h or /, and 
the first of b. Probably no pure Japanese 
word begins with p except onomatopes, 
or children's words. Double p (pp) in a 
compound word is the strengthening of a 
vowel and an aspirate into two explosives, 
a sign of careless speaking, and lack of 
cultivation. The repetition of the vowel 
and aspirate is the mark of good lingual 
breeding, fflhon and Yohodo of the Japa- 
nese gentleman are far more elegant than 
Nippon and Yoppodo of the common peo- 
ple. One can tell a person of cultivation 
by this one sound. 

Pacific Mail S. S. Company, 327, 328, 350, 3S4. 

Pacific Ocean, 327, 328, 546. 

Paddy-field. See Agriculture. 

Page, 428. 

Page, Leon, 247 (note). 

Pagodas, 8S, 114, 165, 175, 204, 381, 392, 480. 

Paintings, 379, 383. 

Palace, 61, 62. 

Palm-trees, 88. 

Paper, 221, 375, 5S2. 

Paper money, 425, 598. 

Pappenberg (island), 240,258. 

Parental authority, 123, 124, 147. 

Pariahs. See Eta. 

Parkes, Sir Harry, quoted, 100, 317, 577. 

Pauloivnia imperialis, 67, 581, 608. 

Peach, 521, 582. 

Peachling, 521. 

Pears, 510, 517, 607. 

Pear-splitter, 220, 433. 

Pearson, Lieutenant, U. S. N., 593. 

Peasantry, 106, 107, 255, 257, 606. 

Pease, 381, 454. 

Pembroke, steamer, 593-595. 

Penal settlements, 600. 

Peony, 582. 

Perfumes, 210, 520, 527. 

Perry, Commodore, 181,303, 304, 329, 347, 348, 
577. 

Perry island, 329. 

Persecution of the Christians, 257, 531. 

Persimmons, 331, 494, 517, 543. 

Peru, 299, 566, 567. 

Pet animals, 210, 449. 



Petitions, 110, 574. 

Petroleum, 21, 525, 546, 60-i, 

Phallic symbols, 33. 

Pheasants, 582. 

Phenix, 480, 481, 581. 

Philip II. of Spain, 250. 

Philippine Islands, 246, 257. 

Physicians, 207, 571, 505. 

Physique, 329-332, 570, 571. 

Pickapack riding, 354, 543. 

Picnics, 205, 4S7, 521, 523. 

Pierce, Franklin, Hon., 401. 

Pigeon, 127, 128 (note), 381, 50S. 

Pilgrims, 200, 205, 252, 337, 358, 3SS, 406, 407o 

Pillory, 190, 309, 361, 581. 

Pillows, 423, 497. 

Pine-trees, 358, 581. 

Pinto, 247, 248, 249. 

Pipes, 30, 33, 347, 421, 423, 500, 501, 515, 528. 

Pirates, 119, 246. 

Pith flowers, 380. 

Plows, 607. 

Plum-tree blossoms, 384, 428, 431, 582. 

Plumbago, 602. 

Poetry, 145, 210, 265, 457, 511, 519, 581. 

Police, 350, 550, 598. 

Polo, 529, 530. 

Polygamy, 32, 108, 209, 211, 241, 556, 557. 

Pope, 250. 

Population, 600, 601, 605. 

Porcelain, 423, 517, 530, 546, 616. 

Portman, Mr., 340. 

Portuguese, 243, 247-263, 545, 577, 602. 

Postal cards, 591. 

Postal statistics, 590, 591. 

Posthumous names and titles, 2S5, 288. 

Postman, 542, 546, 590, 591. 

Post-offices, 590, 591. 

Post-relays, 264. 

Potatoes, 355. 

Prayers, 34, 89, 92, 9S, 99, 153, 156, 164, 169, 178, 

179, 181, 22S, 347, 382, 410, 419, 524, 549. 
Praying machines, 382, 3S9. 
Preaching, 510, 511, 523. 
Presents, 422, 430, 517, 520, 539. 
Press, the. See Neivsjmpers. 
Priests. See Bonzes, Shinto. 
Princes of the blood, 109, 116, 563 (note), 505, 

590,591,608,196 (note). 
Printing, 351, 492, 520, 54S. 
Prisons, 165, 184, 56S, 569, 572, 58S. 
Processions, 139, 294, 34S, 353, 464, 525, 545, 

565, 592. 
Prostitutes, 139, 195, 405, 556, 572. 
Protestant Christians, 578. 
Proverbs, 146, 376, 437, 457, 498, 504-511, 553. 
Provinces, names of, 74, 601. 
Pruyn, Hon. Kobert H., 401, 594, 595. 
Pseudo-mikado, 1S8. 



INDEX. 



673 



Pullman cars, 334. 
Punch, The Japan, 352. 
Puns, 364, 379, 465, 469, 4T1. 
Purgatory, 169, 170, 228. 
Purple, 467, 499. 

Q. See Kiu, Kua, or Ka. 
Quanon. See Kuanon. 
Quarter-staff, 219. 
Quartz, 603. See Crystal. 
Quicksilver, 602-605. 
Quivers, 227. 

R in ri sounds like dr. 

Rabbit or hare, 420, 495, 582. 

Races in Japan, 27, 86. 

Radishes, 355, 409, 410, 501. 

Rai Sanyo, 155, 298. 

RaibiO, 570. 

Rai den, 484-4S6. 

RaikO, 491, 492. 

Railways, 343, 351, 361, 473, 514, 550, 565. 

Rain, 479, 589. 

Rain-coat, 90, 265. 

Ranks, 103, 237, 276, 321, 323, 324. 

Ranters, 163. 

Ratification of the treaties, 306, 312, 317. 

Rationalists, 52, 53, 58. 

Rats, 409, 449, 450. 

Rebellion. See Insurrections. 

Reception of Perry, 303, 304, 329, 347, 348. 

Reception at Washington, 324. 

Red tape, 349. 

Refreshments, 428, 431. See Diet, Dinner. 

Regalia of the Japanese sovereigns, 50, 58, 

61, 122, 136, 139, 184. 
Regents, 79, 109, 110, 244, 266, 305. 
Relay towns, 264, 422. 
Relics, 40, 111 (note). 
Religion, 33, 34, 52, 61, 80, S3, 88, 89, 92, 95, 96- 

100, 158-175, 300, 301, 323, 555, 561, 578. 
Remington rifles, 411. 
RenniO, 173. 
Rents of land, 585, 606. 
Representative government, 566, 574. 
Resemblances between Buddhism and Ro- 
man Christianity, 252. 
Revenge, 135-139, 222, 474. 
Revenue, 109, 140, 273, 274, 275, 278, 59S. See 

Taxes. 
Revivals of pure Shinto, 300 ; of ancient 

learning, 298 ; of Buddhism, 163. 
Rice, 30, 48, 49, 53, 104, 107, 143, 273, 278, 355, 

372, 381, 409, 415, 418, 423, 470, 496, 509, 515, 

523, 586, 605-607. 
Richardson, Mr., 359, 592. 
Riddle?, 465. 
Riding, 366, 528, 529. 
Rifles, 311, 350, 513, 596. 



Rinnoji no miya, 285. 

Rio, 104, 425. 610. 

Rip Van Winkle myths, 498, 502, 503. 

Riu Kiu. See Liu Kiu. 

Rivers of Japan, 20. 

Roads, 267, 283, 340, 353-362, 411, 412, 417, 418, 
541-550, 608. See Railways. 

Robbers, 120, 140, 195, 389, 390, 546. 

RokugO River, 360. 

Roman Catholicism and Buddhism, resem- 
blances, 252. 

Roman letters, 591. 

Ronin, 223, 278, 307, 309, 315, 316, 373, 574. 

Roofs, 90, 286, 290, 382. See Thatch. 

Rooms, 205, 435. 

Roses, 505. 

Rosaries, beads, 165, 169, 252, 379, 3S3, 406, 
426. 

Russians, 299, 331, 337, 348, 350, 485, 577. 

Rutgers College, 431, 533 (note), 563 (note). 

S, always sibilant, as s in sip. In combina- 
tion, z. See under J and Z. 
Sabae, 474, 531, 586. 
Sabbath, 426, 439. 
Sacrifices, human, 92 ; animals, 98. 
Sadamori, 188 (note). 
Sado, 22, 157, 283, 604. 
Sadowara, on map. See Miyazaki. 
Saddles, 427. 
Saga, 575. 

Sagami, 64, 70, 131, 132, 262, 573. 
Saghalin, 17, 299, 505, 600. 
Saigo Kichinosuke, 302, 312, 315. 
SaigO Yorimichi, 21S, 563, 575, 577. 
Saikei, or SaikiO. See Kioto. 
Sailors, native, 246, 383, 493. 
Sailors, foreign, 347, 350, 493, 542. 
Sajima, 188 (note). 
Sakadori, 537. 

Sake, 31, 207, 208, 331, 357, 488. 
Sakurada Avenue, 307, 394. 
Salt, 97, 387, 442, 467, 470, 511, 603. 
Salt-making, 546. 
Sama, title, 39 (note), 237. 
Sameshima, 400. 
Samisen, 364, 408. 
Sam Patch, 548, 580. 
Samurai, 83, 106, 108, 278, 426, 574, 600. 
Sandals, 356, 3S0. 
Sandwich Islands, 579-581. 
Sanetomo, 148. 

SanjO Saneyoshi, 309, 313, 563. 
Sanke, 273, 397. 
Sanskrit, 162, 169, 245, 387, 440. 
Sapporo, 60S. 
Saratoga, Cape, 329. 
Saris, 261. 
Sasaki Gonroku, 424, 513, 516, 537. 



674 



INDEX. 



Satow, Mr. Ernest, 26, 39, 96, 100, 298, 305 

(note). 
Satsuma, Prince of, 302, 592, 593. 
Satsuma, clan, 267, 269, 274, 276, 277, 300, 301, 

302, 312, 313, 321, 571, 592, 593. 
Savatier's, Enumeratio, 23, 24. 
Sawa Nobuyoshi, 309. 
Sawing, 365. 

Sayouara, 359, 413, 418, 541. 
Scenery, 57, 82, 83, 91, 112, 118, 128, 154, 205, 

418-425, 436, 437, 473, 474, 477, 478, 503, 514, 

523, 537, 541-550. 
Schools, 370-374, 431-434, 523, 538, 561, 563 

(note), 573. 
Science, 477, 478, 488. 
Scissors, 357. 
Scolding, 444, 497. 
Screens, 317, 364, 422, 523, 581, 582. 
Sculling, 33, 331, 332, 406. 
Sculpture. See Carving. 
Sea-god, 498. 
Seal of blood, 256, 285. 
Seasons, 25, 588, 590. 
Sea-weed, 25, 90, 494. 
Sects of Buddhism, 162, 163, 164, 175. 
Secular emperor, 140, 185. 
Sei-i Tai ShOgun, 142, 274, 312, 313. 
Seki. See Gates. 
Sekigahara, 222, 255, 266, 267, 268, 269, 278, 

545. 
Semman. See Sanetomo. 
Semiramis, French man-of-war, 593. 
Sendai, 586. 

Seppuku, 156, 190, 221, 240, 272, 314, 511. 
Serpents. See Snakes. 
Servants, 342, 443-445. 
Servility, 255, 430. 
Sesamum Orientalis, 380. 
S6to uchi. See Inland Sea. 
Settsu, 62, 409. 
Shaka. See Buddha. 
Sheep, 606. 

Shells, 210, 406, 407, 459, 499. 
Shem Mon GakkO, 538. Incorporated with 

the Imperial College, which see. 
Shepherd, Colonel Charles O., 401, 568. 
Shi. See under Ji. 
Shiba, 287, 288, 289, 290. 
Shibata Katsuiye, 230, 238, 239, 240, 241, 435, 

537. 
Shidzuoka, 261, 284, 304, 547, 548. 
Shiga, 413, 414. 
Shigemori, 419. 
Shikken, 150. 
Shikoku, 113, 277, 586. 
Shimabara, 257. 

Shimadzii family. See Satsuma Clan. 
Shimadzu Saburo, 312, 592. 
Shimoda, 348. 



Shimojo, Mr., 547. 

Shimonoseki, 135, 139, 311, 377, 392, 575, 593- 

595. 
Shinagawa, 362. 
Shinano, 72, 267 (note), 573, 60S. 
ShinnO, 187. 
Shinran, 170, 400, 538. 
Shin sect, 170, 173, 174, 233, 234. 
Shinto, 88 ; model of temple, 90 ; festivals, 92, 

160, 251, 300, 301, 410, 411, 419 ; shrines, 600. 
Ships. See Naval. 
Shiro yama. See Hakuzan. 
ShOdO, 2S4. 
Shoes, 357. 

ShOgun, 65, 142, 156, 197, 273, 313. 
ShOgunate. See Bakufu. 
Shops, 356, 364, 365, 370, 378, 379, 546, 550. 
ShOyen, 141. 

Shrines, 71, 89, 436, 600. See Temples. 
Shu-ten dOji, 492, 493. 
Shutoku, 18S. 
Si. See under Shi. 
Siam, 111, 246. 
Siberia, 26, 27, 364. 
Sidotte, Abbe, 262, 263. 
Silk, 83 (note), 607. 
Silver, 602-605, 60S. 
Singing-girls. See Geisha. 
Single combats, 1S9, 218. 
Sitting posture', 31, 356, 365, 413, 421, 445. 
Six guards, 275. 
Slavery, 570. 

Slave-trade, 244, 24S, 254, 566, 567. 
Sleep, 421, 423, 468, 472. 
Small-pox, 46S, 470, 549. 
Smoking, 258, 347, 372, 421, 500, 501, 528, 532, 

570. 
Snakes, 58, 389, 510, 525. 
Snow, 25, 83 (note), 124, 404, 413, 420, 459, 540 

-545, 5S9. 
Snow-shoes, 421, 542. 
SO family, 242. 
Soap, 356, 546. 
Social customs, 32-34, 53, 93, 94, 105-107, 169, 

170, 208-213, 222-224, 228, 435^40, 452-475, 

556-561. 
Soil, 19, 20, 91, 296, 605-607. 
Soldiers, 366. 

Solomon, the Japanese, 500-502. 
Songs, 34, 47, 332, 401, 402, 432 (note), 454, 495, 

541. 
Sosanoo, 45, 48, 49. 
Sovereigns, list of, 123. 
Soul, 460, 472. 

Southern dynasty, 18S, 1S9, 192. 
Soy (shOyu), 208, 357, 455, 496. 
Spaniards, 250, 255, 258, 577. 
Sparrows, 223, 505, 527. 
Spear exercise, 433. 



INDEX. 



675 



Spears, 13S, 219, 311, 420, 574. 

Spiders, 58, 493. 

Spies, 6S, 69, 144, 296, 369. 

Spire, 381. 

Spiritual emperor, 140, 1S5. 

Sponge-cake, 258, 260, 42S, 517. 

Sports, 209, 350, 452-465. 

Sportsmen, 394, 397, 549. 

Springs, 21, 128. 

Stature, 470, 596. 

Steamboat, 414, 415, 597. 

Steamships, 328, 339, 347, 575, 597. 

Steatite, 603. 

Stirrups, 366, 457, 530. 

Stockings, 373, 434, 537. 

Stone Age, 29. 

Stonewall, iron-clad ram, 72, 362, 597. 

Stories, 35, 490-503. 

Storks, 24, 409, 420. 

Storms, 25, 178, 188, 479, 525, 5S9. 

Story-tellers, 423, 491. 

Stowaways, 32S. 

Straw, 90, 358, 360, 426. 

Street-cries, 333, 427. 

Street-tumblers, 332. 

Students in America, 57, 329, 358, 522, 523, 563. 

Succession to the throne, 64, 110. 

Sucking breath, 211 (note), 222, 524. 

Sugaru, 486. 

Sugawara, 109, 115, 116, 400. 

Suicide, 144, 156, 190, 221, 240, 315, 473, 556 

(note). 
Suido, 1S8 (note). 
Sujin, 60-67. 
Sulphur, 21, 602-605. 
Sumida River, 131, 378, 482. 
Sumpu, 547 (note). See Shidzuoka. 
Sunday, 260, 402, 426. 
Sunday-schools, 351, 426. 
Sun-goddess, 48. 
Sun-worship, 56, 97, 580. 
Superstition, 25, 466^68, 570. 
Surface of the country, 17-25, 63, 64, 21S, 220, 

411, 412, 596. 
Surgeons, 221, 306 (note), 375, 571 (note). 
Suruga, 64, 69, 131, 132, 230, 265, 284, 370, 374, 

415, 547, 548, 573. 
Snruga dai, 374, 599. 
Sutras, 203. 
Suwo, 250. 

Suzume, 47, 48, 53, 491. 
Swans, 397. 

Sweetmeats, 359, 422, 517, 548. 
Sweet-potatoes, 355, 517, 546. 
Sword-racks, 372, 415, 434, 550. 
Swords, 49, 69, 154, 155, 221-225, 366, 370/374- 

376, 509, 525. 
Symbolism, 50, 53, 160, 227, 425, 437, 474, 488, 

4S7, 4S8, 5S1, 532, 607, 60S. 



T in combination, d. 

Tables, 260, 423, 424, 533, 541. 

Tablets, 2S9, 381, 383, 440. 

Tachibana hime, 70. 

Tachibana, 70. 

Tadamori, 118. 

TaikO, 237. See Hideyoshi. 

Taikun, 273 (note), 2S6, 2S7, 295, 304-367. 

Taira family, 109, 115-139, 18S, 214, 215, 216, 

229, 230, 406, 419, 617. 
Taka Island, 181. 
Takanawa, 362, 400. 
Takashimaya, Mr., 334. 
Takeda, 217. 

Takefu, 170. 419, 422, 423, 541. 
Takenouchi, 79, 419 (note). 
Takiang, steamer, 593. 
Tales. See Folk-lore. 
Tamagushi, 46. 
Tametomo, 121, 122. 
Tamura, 28. 

Tancrede, French man-of-war, 593. 
Tanegashima, 248. 
Tanners. See Eta. 
Tartars, 35. 
Tartary, 176-181. 
Tatsu no kuchi, 177. 
Tattooing, 32, 512. 
Taxes, 63, 104, 106, 107, 140, 141, 151, 205, 217, 

598, 606. 
Tayasu. Kamenosuke, 564. 
Tea, 112, 337, 357, 360, 387, 388, 409, 410, 415, 

471, 472, 542, 599. 
Tea-crop, 599. 

Tea-houses, 35S, 359, 38S, 523, 542. 
Teachers, 83, 109, 150, 204, 371, 527, 563, 577. 
Teeth, 32, 80, 210, 211 (note), 359, 382, 469, 507, 

544. 
Telegraphs, 343, 350, 473, 545, 575, 608. 
Temples, 61, 70, 79, 88, 90-97, 99, 131, 157, 173, 

199, 204, 206, 22S, 229, 232, 242, 245, 252, 2S4, 

285, 2S7-290, 378-390, 406, 410, 411, 419, 438. 
Temujin, 144 (note). 
Ten Sho Dai Jin. See Amaterasu. 
Tengu, 469, 487. 
Tenjin, 116, 144 (note). 
TennO, 36, 39. 
Terashima Munenori, 399. 
Terraces, 64, 90, 91, 417, 418. 
Thatched roofs, S9, 90, 212, 328, 420. 
Theatres, 94, 407, 515. 
Thieves, 140, 195. 
Three jewels. See Regalia. 
Thunder, 4S4, 4S6, 5S9. 
Tidal wave, 25, 34S, 477, 4S6. 
Tiffin, 370. 
Tiger, 506, 509, 582. 
Tiger skins, 220. 
Tiles, 3S2, 394, 397, 436. 



INDEX. 



Timber, 22, 418, 533. 

Time, 63, 113, 421. 

Tin, 603, 605. 

Titles, 103, 19T, 276, 321. 

Titsiugh, 207 (note). 

Toba, 123, 411, 412. 

Tobacco, 25S, 500, 501, 570. See Smoking. 

Toge (mountain passes), 71, 72, 267 (note). 

Tojin, 420, 512, 516, 547. 

TCkaido, 346, 348, 353-362, 404, 545-549, 601. 

TOkei ; another pronunciation of TOkiO, 

which see. 
Tokimasa, 129, 141, 147, 148. 
Tokimune, 157, 165, 176. 
TOkio, 363^03, 550, 563. 
Tokiwa, 124, 545. 
Tokiyori, 149, 165. 
Tokonoma, 31, 219. 
Tokugawa, 67, 157, 270-274, 287-290, 294-296, 

312, 313, 398, 547, 548, 564, 586. 
Toll, 360. 

Tombs of emperors, 62, 157. 
Tombs of shOguns, 284-290. 
Tombstones, 514. 
" Tommy," 401. 
Tomoye, 135 (note), 458. 
Tonegawa, 394. 
Tongue, 44, 511. 
Tops, 459. 
TOri, 366, 550, 563. 
Torii, 9S, 252. 

Toronosqui. See Kato Eiyomasa. 
Tortoise, 390, 436, 4S1, 487, 49S, 505, 525. 
Torture, 569. 
Tosa, 312, 313, 586. 
TOtOmi, 546. 
Tow-path, 426, 427. 
Toyotomi, 237. See Hideyoshi. 
Toys, 366, 379, 452-465. 
Tozama, 275. 
Trade-dollars, 407. 

Trades, 203-205, 279, 2S0, 355, 366, 600. 
Travels, 149, 175, 212, 405-424, 471, 509, 541- 

550, 573. 
Treasury department, 103, 104, 598, 608. 
Treasure-ship, 425, 472. 
Treaties, 304, 306, 312, 317, 34S. 
Trees, sacred, 473, 474. 
Tsi. See under Chi. 
Tsugarii, 28, 608. 
Tsukiji, 362, 363, 550, 563. 
Tsukuba Kan, training-ship, 564, 597. 
Teunetoki, 149. 
Tsuruga, 76, 79, 416-419, 60S. 
Tsurugaoka, 131, 148, 242, 404. 
Tsushima, 118, 176, 242. 
Tsutsumi, Mr., 527, 536. 
Turenne, Count, 573. 
Turnips, 227, 543. 



Twins, 468. 

Two-sworded men. See Samurai, Swords. 

Tycoon. See Shogun, Tai-kun. 

Types of faces, 29, 30, 86, 87. 

Typhoon, 176, 178, 1S1, 477, 525, 579, 5S0. 

U, pronounced as u in rule, or oo in boot. 

Uchida, 320. 

Uguisu. See Cuckoo. 

Uji, 61. 

Ukemochi, 49, 419 (note). 

Umbrellas, 356, 435. 

United States, relations with Japan, 299, 303, 

347, 400, 401, 577, 591, 593-595. 
University. See Imperial College. 
Unkei, 157. 
Uraga, 261, 329. 
Urashima, boy of, 498-500. 
Uriu, Mr.,320. 
Ushi toki mairi, 474, 475. 
Usurpation, 146, 148. See Bakufu. 
Uwajima, 317, 399, 518. 
Uyeno, 2S7, 306, 315. 
Uyesugi, 217. 
Uzume, 47, 48. 

V. There is no v in Japanese. See under W. 

Van Eeed, E., 592, 593. 

Van Valkenbergh, General, 401. 

Vasco da Gama, 247. 

Vegetables, 23, 49, 203, 357, 415, 470, 607. 

Vendetta. See Revenge. 

Venice of Japan, 240. See Ozaka. 

Venison, 390. 

Vermicelli, 422. 

Vices, ancient, 94. 

Vienna Exposition, 405 (note), 564, 565. 

Villages, 27, 28, 346, 351, 600, 606. 

Virtue, 94, 209, 371, 481, 555, 556, 5S3. 

Visitors, 430, 467, 46S, 471. 

Volcanoes, 20, 21. 

Von Brandt, Minister, 100 (note), 247 (note). 

Votive tablets, 383. 

Vows, 199, 228. 

Wages, 355. 

Wakamat.su, 315, 366. 

Wakizashi. See Dirk. 

Walters, Mr., 262. 

Waui, 83. 

War, 197. 

Wash, 494. 

Washington, 524, 546. 

Watches, 334. 

Water, stealing, 63, 64. 

Water-courses, 63, 64, 91, 523. 

Watson, Mr. R. G., 567, 56S. 

Wax, 3S8, 446. 

Wax-figures, 388. 



INDEX. 



677 



Wayside shrines, 88, 89, 198, 252, 541. 

Weasel, 471, 482. 

Weather probabilities, 44T, 469. 

Weaving, 31, 33, 46, 49, 53, 546. 

Webster Isle, 329. 

Weddings, 438, 471, 472, 515. 

Whalebone, 458. 

Whales, 299. 

Wheat, 340, 607. 

Wheaton's "International Law," 399. 

Wheeled vehicles, 114, 212, 332, 333, 334. 

Wild fowl, 24, 132, 394, 420, 537. 

William the Conqueror, 585. 

Wind, 484, 5S9. 

Wind-imp, 483. 

Windows, 394, 448, 471. 

Winter, 25, 72 (note), 124, 404, 540, 545, 588, 

590. 
Wirgman, Mr. A. See Punch. 
Wistaria, 274. 
Wo. See under O or 0. 
Woo. See under U. 
Wood-cutter, 390, 495, 503. 
Wolves, 24, 389, 540. 
Woman, 44, 75, 117 (note), 208, 210, 212, 213, 

551, 561. See Female characters. 
" Woman's Great Study," 211, 212, 558. 
Wooing, 385, 523, 524. 
Wool, 606. 

Wrestling, 348, 433, 441, 442, 519. 
Writing, 91, 92, 113, 114, 153, 162, 194, 206, 212, 

402. 
Wyoming, U. S. S., 593. 

X. For words beginning with x in Portu- 
guese books, or those copied therefrom, 
see under Shi. 

Xavier, 249, 250, 252, 412. 

Y. See also under E. 



Yagura (castle-towers), 414. 

Yakunin (business man, official), 421, 526. 

Yama-bushi, 206. 

Yamanouchi, 586. 

Yam a oka Jiro, 523. 

Yamashiro, 62. 

Yamato, 30, 57, 58, 65, 309, 523. 

Yamato-Dake no mikoto, 69, 72, 73, 419 (note). 

Yamato damashi, 318, 435, 571, 597. 

Yamazaki, 409. 

Yashiki, 393, 394, 397, 398, 407, 427, 536, 563. 

Yasiike, 236. 

Yasutoki, 149. 

Yatabori, Mr.,548. 

Yawata, 410, 411. 

Year, divisions, 63. 

Years, critical in life, 472. 

Yedo, 264, 265, 307, 318. See Tokio., 

Yezo, 19, 26-35, 605, 607. 

Yodo, river, 112, 408^10. 

Yodo, town, 411. 

Yokohama, 327-352, 399, 589. 

Yokosuka, 262, 562. 

Yoriiye, 147, 148. 

Yorimasa, 5S1. 

Yoritomo, 125-144, 22S, 241, 293, 323, 404, 458. 

Yoshida Kiyonari, Mr., 563 (note). 

Yoshida Shoin, 305, 306. 

Yoshinaka, 134. 

Yoshitomo, 117, 121, 123. 

Yoshitsune, 34, 124, 143, 144, 206, 404, 458, 512. 

Yoshiye, 117. 

Yoshiwara, 362, 364, 555, 556. 

Yuri. See Mitsuoka. 

Z. See under J or S. 
Zempnkuji, 400, 401. 
Zen sect, 162, 163. 
Zodiac signs, 382, 5S0, 611. 
ZOzOji, 287, 288, 289, 290, 894. 



THE END. 






**^«B 



